Kamz Puff

My New Identity

2011-09-02T08:33:00.001+05:30

My Android

2011-08-27T16:41:00.005+05:30

This is my Android. How does your's look like?

Time has passed by and I haven’t been able to explore the app world as much as I would have liked to. But I did search for my needs and found some pretty apps. I have even turned on to some purchases in the Android Market from just being a “Free Apps” user. 

My favorites (a.k.a actively used):

• The Swype keyboard for no typing & just swiping
• GPS Essentials to track my runs
• App Organizer for a clean home screen & easy app maintenance
• TweetCaster for the Tweets
• Instapaper for some convenient reads of so those millions of links that we come by
• NDrive for voice based turn by turn directions
• Google Maps for navigation in the deepest of gullies
• Places for some quick searches in foreign land
• ScreenIt for some quick Android screen grabs, sharing & for further discussions
• Dropbox for the file syncs
• Goggles for the unknowns & explorations

My son's favorites:

• Google Sky Map to gaze at the stars and to look for them in the sky
• NDrive for co-navigation and keen observation of actual velocity matching the one on screen
• Kids ABC Phonics for the learning time
• Angry birds for some happy times
• Gallery to watch personal history a zillion times
• YooNinja for some blood time (unfortunate but being negotiated for uninstall by swapping with a better game)

What's your best list? Share your list, so that I can also leverage. :)

Top 10 free Android apps that have awed me in a week!

2011-05-08T23:02:00.003+05:30

For some reason I was stuck on to my Moto Razr and HP iPAQ (Windows Mobile) for half a decade. While I used the Razr for all practical purposes (read making and receiving calls), I used the iPAQ to experiment with some mobile app development.

While I have developed apps for other platforms, I haven't had actually owned any of those devices. To be carrying around the Razr and brick like iPAQ phones now, many a times made be feel like a sinner. May be I hung onto the Razr because it was a gift from my beloved wife and my loyalty to it stretched a bit too long. It was also ironical that I was employed with Motorola when I was gifted (read, "pushed into using it"). LOL!

I was very clear on getting a phone which had a good positioning with apps, as that is the present and the future. So, the choice boiled down pretty much to iPhone, Blackberry or OEMs phones that came with Android. I had also made up my mind not to directly jump on to an expensive phone. So, the amount I spend on the phone had to remain almost the same, but I wanted much more worth than what a Razr had offered me.

The moment I played around with LG P500 and a few apps in a mobile store, I knew this was the one. Yeah, I know, the last sentence was a bit of exaggeration but the feeling was somewhere close to it.

In 5 years, a lot had changed. From the sales guy at the mobile store, who this time knew the exact technical details that he was talking about to the capabilities of the hardware and infinite possibilities with the software on the device.

In one week of the Android phone in my hand, I have been awed many a times by the wonderful apps out there. These are some the top apps that has awed me in a week's time.

1. Swype Keyboard (Beta): No qwerty typing required. Just move or swipe your fingers around the keyboard to see the magic work. It has voice recognition options as well but requires data network and in my mind little slower than the swipes. I just feel that the SlideIT keyboard is better for the voice recognition part than Swype.

2. Google Goggles: Scan anything and everything you want from your phone and search the web. You will be awed by the electronic links that are returned by the captured image search. I tried it on an Adidas logo on a cap, Godrej logo on a fridge, articles / pics on magazines, FedEx barcode on a courier, Thomas & Friends toy sets and so many others. I was just blown away by the results! An app that everyone should try to get a feel of the possibilities of a software. Below, an art work captured by the app returns details of the art.

3. Drop Box: The power of Drop Box for desktops have been extended to the mobile. Great utility to take everything that matters to you on the go as they are on the cloud. I am awed by the seamless sync that happens across all the drop box end points in a few seconds.

4. Barcode Scanner: Scans barcodes on products to look up prices and reviews. You can also scan data matrix and QR Codes containing URLs, contact info, etc. Not to forget that you can share your contacts, apps, and bookmarks via QR Code. A handy apps to look up those codes.

5. Utilites: Other very useful utilities that caught my eye, the first week are the below.

Apps Organizer - Easy way to organize shortcuts to the home screen with labeling
App 2 SD - Helps you clear phone memory by a touch to move apps to SD card
Application Protection - Apps that deal with personal details can be protected with password
NQmobile Anti-virus - Basic anti virus for your Droid
TweetCaster - Tweeting app to post updates to Twitter and Facebook
Zedge - great app for those interesting ringtones & wallpaper downloads; has a huge library to search and download.
Astro file manager - For those who are interested to manage the Droid file system
ThinkFree Office - For easy viewing of Office files

There are many more, but I will move on to some apps (next few) that inspired my 3+ year old son, just for one major reason. Simplicity!

6. Google Sky Map Cool augmented reality app, with which you can let your kid move around 360 degree, spot the planets and interact to get details. Be sure to notice the smile on your kiddo, when the moon is exactly spotted in the direction of the real moon in the sky!

7. Guitar: Solo Lite Virtual playing of a musical instrument cannot get better. You almost feel that you strike the chord of the guitar when your fingers move over the strings. And the sound that comes out is as precise as the one that comes from a real one.

8. Games (Free games, that can be very addictive)

9. Kids ABC Phonics Lite: Interactive learning for phonics, alphabets and simple word formation / identification. Just wish we had these ways of learning when we were kids. But hey, it does give you an opportunity to go back to those wonders years. So, definitely try them.

Finally, something that is a must for any phone. A tool that lets you manage the apps running in the memory. You open it up and touch the app that you want to close. When you are shutting down for the day, this itself turns out to be your bubble breaker game. :)

10. TasKiller: kill the apps in background and save your battery.

Second Life!

2011-04-09T14:04:00.004+05:30

Life moves on. So will this blog. This blog will live on, at least on the tweet feeds from far and near, that is of interest to me. Have changed the look and feel a bit. Hope you like them as well. Cheers! I might write more often, you never know. For now, tweets are my best bet. :)

Being Polite...

2008-12-26T19:18:00.010+05:30

Good to be back writing after ages.

Last weekend I managed to catch up with the forgotten 'Gilly' cricket. I had been eyeing a college-goer in my apartment sneak into the near by college grounds over weekends. This time around, I stopped him and enquired. He offered me to join them.

I had a spring in my walk and raced to the ground. There was a game in progress. The college in ruins or should I say under-construction acted as the long-on stands. And I took to a shade on the supposed-to-be boundary line. There I saw this young chap 'Rahul' who must have been less than 4 feet tall but very enthusiastic in many ways.

After a confirmation that I had an invitation to play with them and counter-check with the college goer, he started a conversation with me. He asked me if I was working. He must have got cues from my greyed hair (which is spreading like a Californian forest fire) and a boring beard.

And then he asked me... 'Which industry?'. At that very minute I knew that this guy was going to pose some tough questions.

And when I replied 'Software', there came the ultimate question. 'Wipro?'. I replied that I was with Cognizant. He went on to say 'I asked you this because, I know that your industry is not doing well. I also know that Wipro is a very dangerous place to be in this downturn.'.

I was shockingly surprised. At his age, I am very sure that I would not have had such an exposure to current affairs.

But he was very polite and did not ask if my job was at stake. He was nice to me, I should say.

He was the 'joker' in the game - meaning he could take on batting representing both sides (but mostly the last man in) but must field for both the sides. But for me he was not a Joker. For his stature, he fielded really well and his batting was decent with basics in place. And beyond that he talked about other things bothering the world right now.

There is a general misconception in the Indian public that most of the millions of people in the software industry have been sacked and are left jobless. Interistingly a lot of non-software folks seem to be happy with that news. The reasons for the phenomenon of the modern day youth spending big on Clothes, Vehicles and Homes seems to have fully fallen on the highly paid folks in the software industry - from entry level programmers to CEOs.

But when this little boy asked me that question, all that I was made think about was to wonder if I would have ever had such a discussion or thinking during my cricketing days when I was at Rahul's age. No way!

Magical Ads of yesteryears

2008-05-11T15:48:00.002+05:30

I find these ads of yesteryears to be magical. Watch them. You will get to know what I mean.

Artist's Impression and Impact

2008-03-06T09:26:00.003+05:30

Rare battle - Survival of the bravest!

2008-02-19T08:58:00.004+05:30

This is a dramatic but real video capturing one of the rarest battles caught on camera. Ensure that you watch it to it's fullest length.

Cricket, Gentlemen and Australians? Ha Ha Ha!

2008-01-06T18:42:00.000+05:30

2nd Test match between India and Australia in the Gavaskar-Border 2008 trophy at Sydney. Aussies register their 16th straight test win.

Yeah, it was another tail-order collapse. But not one that would make the Indian fan upset because of the performance of the Indian players. The sadness would be attributed more towards the horrendous umpiring decisions which went against the Indians. The umpiring blunder score finally stood 6 - 1 in favor of Australia at the end of the fifth day's play of the 2nd test match at Sydney. It was a pity to witness even third-umpire decisions going against Indians.

Indians played remarkably well and especially captain Kumble stood ground and set an example. The test result is an agony. The Indians did not deserve to loose this test match but for the poor decisions. Yes, accepted that the Indians should have been able to wade of the Australian challenge. They were just 7 balls away when the "golden" Clark spun the match with his 3 wickets in a span of 5 balls.

But, it's hard to digest the fact that the Australians have enjoyed this Godly treatment every now and then. It was interesting to read this snippet from today's daily "During an informal chat, some months ago, Shivnarine Chanderpaul made an interesting point: if the umpires don’t rule all the 50-50 decisions, or even some of the 40-60 ones, in Australia’s favour, most of the Test teams can beat them. He might, of course, have been exaggerating the beating part a bit. But the fact remains the current Australian lot, whether while batting or bowling, invariably seem to enjoy the benefit of doubt more. It’s like a protective cover that comes to their rescue whenever they are in trouble, or when the opposition is on top".

If they were Gentlemen, Ponting and Symonds should have walked as soon as they nicked. They stood ground. So, what brought about this change to the Gentlemen of cricket? Did they hold ground then since they were pinned to the walls? That doesn’t speak well about their genleman-nism. The so-called "Sportsmanship" has been missing very clearly from Ponting's men for quite some time now.

It was ridiculous to see the umpire go to the same guy (Ponting) to ask if Ganguly's catch was cleanly taken. What does he expect as the answer from a person who stood ground after cleanly having nicked the ball? He never even bothered to contact Bucknor or the third umpire. (Let me not talk about Bucknor and his decisions against India. That would be separate article by itself.)

I hate to see a indifferent treatment to players of different nationalities from ICC. Especially when it comes to Australians, they being pulled up for dissent or quarrel or intimidation never seems to happen. Are they gods? Or are they considered as Gentlemen and given this special allowance? Their act on the field doesn't seem to suggest so.

Cricket, Gentlemen and Australians? Nice Joke!

News/Columns: Sack Ponting * Aussie sportsmanship draws flak * India laid low by Bucknor-Benson duo

Fun @ work!

2007-09-29T20:16:00.000+05:30

Amidst all work, I got a chance to participate in sports and a creative contest at my work place. Here was my entry for an Anti smoking campaign titled "Say 'Yo!' to life and 'No!' to smoking". I wanted to give it a software related touch and therefore the concept of Uninstalling Life.

Transformation.

2007-09-29T15:07:00.000+05:30

Feverish Cricket!

2007-09-29T13:04:00.000+05:30

Life moves on. I have shifted gears and slowed down the pace. The last project at work has been successful and more than everything satisfying. It gives an “I love my job!” feeling and makes you feel that all of the late nights were worth it. It felt even better when a recognition came in the form of an award for all the good work.

T20 world cup championship started and ended with a bang. I loved every bit of it. For a change, I was all along propagating my belief to everyone that India had a good chance in this tournament after watching the initial matches (after making it to the Super 8). I very rarely have had such a feeling in any major tournament that India participated.

In my opinion, any team could have own the T20 form of cricket world cup and India did a tremendous job to peek as Winners. I loved this form of cricket which not many (including me) believed to be a hit. This form allows us to watch a full match and test our nerves! One thing that came out of these matches was the observation that, my wife was cool and relaxed in tense moments, whereas I was going restless like a rattle snake.

The superstitious self, came out of me to torture my wife to take my silly requests like “Sit where you are, don’t move! Don’t answer the call! Don’t wash your hands, etc…” which later lead to my own self-belief. At the end, it was all for good. We Won! I shouted like hell broke loose after each of these games in spite of my non-cricket-fever which was clinging on to me for more than a week then. I am still left with a very bad throat. But the world cup came and went. A feverish end I should say.

India won the cup! And it was time for the stones, chappals and broomsticks to stay were they were. It was time for garlands to visit the players at the Mumbai airport. It was time for the supporters to show all their love. Mumbai came to a stand still. There were unexploded bombs on the pathways. There were the NCP members who took the front row leaving the players behind. There were supporters all over the park and the wicket at Wankhade. Hockey players went on hunger strike for not being recognized. It rained cats and dogs. Or rather, was it raining Flats and Cash? TV News production houses thrived in creating breaking news out of all this and raised their TRP ratings. Good for them. And there was this poor (and feverish) soul home alone looking at that all day long.

Vellayappan a.k.a White Father

2007-08-14T16:33:00.000+05:30

After schooling days, many of my school mates including me have been in touch via a mailing group. The group happened to be a place where people shared updates, marriage invitations, news about promotions in personal and professional life, shared lighter moments and the likes. But yesterday we received a shocker from Darshan.

We were informed about the sudden demise of one of our loving friends - Vellayappan Chidambaram. He was also knows as White Father - a literal translation of his Tamil name in English. I know him as an intelligent, ever smiling and a lovable friend. After his graduation in the US he was working with Dell at Austin.

When I read the mail at my work place, I could instantly feel my heart starting to beat with a thud. Soon, there were tears. I had to wipe it away pretty quickly and get along with the team discussion that proceeded. My mind wasn’t there though. On my way back from office, my memory took me back to all the good times that I had shared with Vellay.

It has been really tough to get over this tragic news. No body would have thought that someone could pass away while enjoying walks on water which is not very deep. Vellay, I just wish you not being there that day.

Vellay, we would definitely miss you. You would always be remembered for all the nice qualities that you had. May your soul rest in peace; may your family have all the strength and courage to overcome this trauma. Our prayers would be with you and your family.

These are the links that were passed on to us: Link 1 Link 2 Link 3

Four Stages Of Life!

2007-08-11T18:01:00.001+05:30

Photo Ads - Unicef

2007-08-11T17:30:00.000+05:30

GM and the Vanilla puzzle!

2007-06-12T10:56:00.000+05:30

An interesting reading that I thought of sharing...

A complaint was received by the Pontiac Division of General Motors which stated: 'This is the second time I have written to you, and I don't blame you for not answering me, because I sounded crazy, but it is a fact thatwe have a tradition in our family of Ice-Cream for dessert after dinner each night, but the kind of ice cream varies so, every night, after we've eaten, the whole family votes on which kind of ice cream we should have and I drive down to the store to get it. It's also afact that I recently purchased a new Pontiac and since then my trips to the store have created a problem!!

You see, every time I buy a vanilla ice-cream, when I start back from the store my car won't start. If I get any other kind of ice cream,the car starts just fine. I want you to know I'm serious about this question, no matter how silly it sounds. What is there about a Pontiac that makes it not start when I get vanilla ice cream, and easy to start whenever I get any other kind?"

The Pontiac President was understandably skeptical about the letter, but sent an Engineer to check it out anyway. The latter was surprised to be greeted by a successful, obviously well educated man in a fine neighborhood. He had arranged to meet the man just after dinner time, so the two hopped into the car and drove to the ice cream store. It was vanilla ice cream that night and, sure enough, after they came back to the car, it wouldn't start. The Engineer returned for three more nights. The first night, they got chocolate. The car started. The second night, he got strawberry. The car started. The third night he ordered vanilla. The car failed to start.

Now the engineer, being a logical man, refused to believe that this man's car was allergic to vanilla ice cream. He arranged, therefore,to continue his visits for as long as it took to solve the problem. And toward this end he began to take notes: He jotted down all sorts of data: time of day, type of gas uses, time to drive back and forth etc.

In a short time, he had a clue: the man took less time to buy vanilla than any other flavor. Why? The answer was in the layout of the store. Vanilla, being the most popular flavor, was in a separate case at the front of the store for quick pickup. All the other flavors were keptin the back of the store at a different counter where it took considerably longer to check out the flavor. Now, the question for the Engineer was why the car wouldn't start when it took less time.

Eureka - Time was now the problem - not the vanilla ice cream!!!! The engineer quickly came up with the answer: "vapor lock".

It was happening every night; but the extra time taken to get the other flavors allowed the engine to cool down sufficiently to start.When the man got vanilla, the engine was still too hot for the vapor lock to dissipate.

Even crazy looking problems are sometimes real and all problems seem to be simple only when we find the solution, with some cool thinking. What really matters is our attitude and our perception. So never be shy to ask out your questions!!

Surface Interaction

2007-05-31T14:10:00.000+05:30

Intution has a brand new method of operation! One without a keyboard. One even without a mouse. Ever imagined how it will be to operate a user interface without a keyboard or a mouse?

Well, you could use your finger and operate on a surface. As simple as that! Watch these amazing introductory demos.

Out of hibernation!

2007-05-31T13:54:00.000+05:30

Having got nothing much to do at work, I am back and out of hiberation! During this time, I have had plenty of opportunities to share something with the blogging world. But I just couldn't get to click the "Publish Post" button. Never know how long this return will last though.

Ok. Here is something interesting.

Ever wondered a user interface, where you can do what ever is possible today without a click of a mouse?

You think its easy? Well, then give it a try by clicking here.

All the best!

How Nike Just Did It!

2007-03-07T13:57:00.000+05:30

Amazing Ad! Read more on the how the Ad was created from here.

Interesting behind the screen story.

Precious Water!

2007-02-26T12:18:00.000+05:30

I am sure it is going to be a fight for water that is going to dominate the world rather than a fight for land or oil or nuke resources!

Having dwelled in the housing board quarters at Madurai and having experienced the acute water shortage during summers, the water shortage that we see in Bangalore is nothing new to me. In fact, I am surprised to see folks not able to manage a cut in water supply for couple of hours. Of course, it is annoying. But I sincerely believe that we got learn to deal with it. Now is the time! It is the time to learn and educate the younger ones also to cope with it. No matter what ever we do, we need to be disciplined in the usage of water and it can come by only through practice. A collective attitude, which has to come from within.

The weekend that just passed by was a special one for us. It was decided by the folks at our apartment that a new bore well needs to be installed to take preventive actions to counter the hot and dry summer that was fast approaching.

Trucks arrived. Pooja was performed. And the drilling started resulting in huge noise and dust. People discussed the ifs and buts of the approach. Some were confident. Some were hopeful, while some feared the might of the rocky layers of Kaggadaspura. The senior folks showed maturity and were bold and confident. It was interesting to observe each one’s opinion.

While all that was happening I was thrilled to see the equipment dig-deep into the soil. A few of us took turns to supervise the effort and it made us discuss topics ranging from God’s concept of the creation of layers to each of ours first experiences with bore wells. Then there would be hours of just staying silent and watching the power of the drilling machine do the talking. Pipe after pipe went in and every time we would count it and note down the time.

A chat with the guy who was at work raised concern levels when he sighted unlucky experiences which yielded no water even after 1000+ foot drilling effort. Fortunately, we saw the first signs of the water bed at around 650 foot and felt happy. The operation was shut down late night and resumed early morning. We soon touched round about 950 foot to be convinced that water heights touched our target level of 2 inches.

Water! Water! Water! Save the precious water!

Road Fighter!

2007-02-21T17:46:00.000+05:30

It has been a long time since I had the time to write here. Not that I am having plenty of it now. Just wanted to get over the stress and involve myself in something else. I have an interesting story this time around.

The other day I turned into a road fighter. Literally! I fought with a traffic cop - a traffic warden to be precise. And how is this traffic warden different from a traffic constable? Will come to that a little later.

I was returning early from office and was running late in picking up my wife from office. There was traffic beaming from all angles. Onward traffic from the other lane was stopped and two wheelers on my direction were allowed to go on that lane as well. I too followed the crowd and switched lanes. Accidentally I found the cop on the center of the road. He showed signs of avoiding to be hit. But I had the control to stop well in advance and avoided hitting him. However he approached me and snatched my bike keys and went on to do his routine at the center of the junction at the Jeevan Bhima Nagar junction at Bangalore.

I calmly stepped aside and parked my vehicle on the pavement. In two minutes time I approached him and told him I had taken the other side only after seeing it as a practice for the past few days. He claimed that such a thing could only be done when he was on the center of the road handling traffic.

“Ok. Give me a ticket!” – phat came my reply. He smiled and asked for Rs.500. I said “No Way”. He bargained and came down to Rs.100. I kept declining.

Traffic Warden: (In Kannada) If Sergeant comes now, you will have to pay a heavier fine. Is that Ok?

Me: Yes. Call him!

Traffic Warden: Go and wait.

Me: I cannot. I need to go. Give me a ticket.

Traffic Warden: Pretends to call the sergeant (his big boss).

Me: Ask him to come soon.

Traffic Warden: Gives me a bad look and continues to route the traffic.

Then, I went near him, clicked a snap of him and said “I am definitely going to make a complaint against you”.

By such an act of mine, he got pissed off and hit my mobile. My dear instrument bounced on the road and the battery popped out. By this time I was the angriest man in the world. Traffic was beaming on all four directions but no one moved sighting the actions that were happening. I picked up the mobile and told him “I am from the Press and see what is going to happen”. Visibly tensed and not knowing what to do, he threw the key on the middle of the road. I picked it up and asked for his name as he did not have a badge. Tones went high. We had a heated argument (cinema like action with just the hands waiting to get into the act) at the junction much to the amusement of the onlookers.

Before I went on to use my fists, people dragged me off to the pavement. I cooled down, composed myself and went ahead to pickup my wife. I checked the snap that I had clicked and was not convinced with the image. So, on the way back I went back to the same junction and tried clicking a snap or two of the same cop. The traffic warden was aware of this. My adrenaline was pumping fast and I was desperate to do something about the incident. I wanted to make an official complaint against the guy for harassing me by asking bribe and for authoring the first scratches on my V3i gifted by my better half.

All that going on, the Sargent came on that road with a truck full of bikes. In a desperate effort the warden stopped the van on the center of the road and complained against me taking pictures of him. Initially I traced a few steps back and then realized that I had nothing to lose. My heart wanted me to take the fight straight on and said “come on! Why trace back?” I immediately turned back and approached the Sargent.

Both of us placed our case in front of him. The warden promised his boss that he never asked a bribe. But when the onlookers where on my side he was baffled and the Sargent had no words to reply. He just said “these guys are like that only! Carry on.” He followed it by instructing the warden to get back to his job in a stern manner.

I won the fight!! I walked back to my bike. I heard a few saying that such cops deserve that and a few saying such cops will never improve what ever you do.

On the contrary, I admire the warden, who does his job so meticulously on the parallel road (80 foot road). I would even nominate him as the best traffic cop I have ever seen in my life. Any time you are on the road and if he is present, you could see his total commitment towards his job. He should inspire you some way or the other. It would leave you ask yourself “what would he get in return?”.

Two roads. Two personalities. Inspirational stories of a different kind.

And who are these wardens (non-regular traffic constables without any name badges, with an army cap on a white/khakhi uniform without any starts on the shoulders)? I came to know that they are low profile criminals who are under rehabilitation program.

Captured Moments of 2006!

2007-01-01T12:50:00.000+05:30

Some of the captured moments from the year that passed by, using a Razr V3.

Happy New Year 2007!

2006-12-29T16:41:00.000+05:30

As another year goes past by, let us not sit and stare at it, thinking about how well things could have been but for the ifs and buts!
Let us hope for the best from the coming new year 2007.

Wishing you all a great year ahead!

May most of our dreams and prayers be answered.

Happy New Year 2007!

Here it goes again... another year!

2006-12-29T15:28:00.000+05:30

'Just when you think you're in control,
just when you
think you've got a hold,
just when you get on a roll,
here it goes, here
it goes, here it goes again.

Oh, here it goes again.
I should have known,
should have known,
should have known again,
but here it goes again.
I should have known, should have known,
should have known again,
but here it goes again.
Oh, here it goes again.'

Those were a few lines of the lyrics from "Here it goes again!"

Amazing Video! Creativity to the core!

Artist's Home!

2006-12-21T13:27:00.000+05:30

An Artist's Bedroom

2006-12-21T11:47:00.000+05:30

Have never seen anything like this. Awesome!

Click the image to zoom in.

Lost Love!

2006-12-18T15:28:00.001+05:30

The love with the Reliance-700 plan has come and gone. I remember taking this connection with lots of happiness in 2005. I was just engaged with a person who was far away and I could see phone bills rocketing sky-high. I knew one of my ex-colleagues at Chennai who used to be on phone 24/7. I called her and got to know about this plan from Reliance with which one could talk non-stop to any other Reliance phone in India for a megre Rs.700/- a month.

It was effectively utilised. Now it has been more than a year and the same girl sits next to me at home. Over the months, all kinds of tax components have also been adding up in the bill and to couple with the non-reliance STD calls that we make, I was shelling out at least Rs.1500/- a month. Realised that it was time for a change!

Last week, taking a bit of courage I surrendered the Reliance connection and went in for BSNL option - Re.1 per minute STD call and Rs.180 monthly rental. I was not dissapointed to see the poor customer service level at BSNL office as there was no positive expectation on the same. And to couple with that I have had a rich "Reliance Customer Care" experiance which has taught me to be calm and positive even at the worst of moments. It was tough to make the BSNL lady speak or answer queries. It was to such an extent that one of my friends went on to ask if she expected any thing in return in order to make her speak. A couple of visits to the counter and finally the application form was accepted.

It was a pleasant surprise to see the phone installed and ringing at home within 3 days. The trust with Reliance has gone and the new love for BSNL is born. Nice to hear the "tring tring..."s back.

Josh!!

2006-12-18T15:28:00.000+05:30

It was a pleasure to watch the exuberance of youth! Thankfully, Sreesanth's reply to Nel's abusive words resulted in the bat hitting the ball, the ball going beyond the ropes and then this antic.

Not My Job!!

2006-11-24T13:56:00.000+05:30

Very Creative!

Tamil Hip Hop ROCKS!!

2006-11-01T13:06:00.000+05:30

Here is a sneak preview of the 50 Cents, Black Eyed Peas, Puff Daddys, Eminems, Snoop Doggs performing in Tamil! These are folks from Malaysia.

Mind you westerners, we are not far behind !! Solromulaa!

My previous post on tamil culture and hip hop coming together - Funny Video

Happy Diwali 2006

2006-10-19T11:07:00.000+05:30

Let light prevail everywhere!

Mr.Don - We love you!

2006-10-18T11:14:00.000+05:30

The last weekend was a very painful one. I was first having this neck pain which was in love with me and never wanted to get rid of me. Then there was this pain in my heart. I have still not recovered from both. The earlier one is nothing when compared to the pain in my heart which would stay on for the rest of my life. I can just hope that time heals it better.

When we had just ended our attempt at racing 3 cute little country-dog puppies for the reason that they we did not have the time and energy, my brother bought a cute little Labrador and we fell in love with it straight away. He was named Don. My brother did not have an opportunity to be with Don for a long time as he moved onto Bangalore for work.

Don was irresistible and very affectionate, and time moved on before we realized that we had committed ourselves to raise a dog. I was in college then and it stayed as a true companion. I loved teaching him to interpret commands like “Sit”, “Stand”, “Fetch” and Search”. It was very much liked but feared by my buddies. My dad did not like the concept of having a dog right from the beginning since he felt that it was in a destruction mode when it was a puppy biting off chunks of anything from TV remotes to Sandals. Almost all puppies behave that way, but even today Don needs something to keep chewing. He has a chewing bone especially for that. We must admit that he was very naughty.

No matter how naughty he was, he had unlimited affection towards all of us. He had developed a very strong bond with my mom and would accompany her everywhere but her work place. He would tirelessly wait at the gate for my mom’s return in the evening. When she returns he would leap in joy and reach her face attempting to lick her. Though there were many times my mom would shout at him, she really showed the same affection that she towards my dad, bro and me. She never let it be tied. So Don was in deed a don at home. He used the best places in our home including the Sofas and the mattresses. My mom felt that Don was an avatar of one of my grandmothers for the way it showered love on us and didn’t like visitors envying at the royal treatment that he got. Even though my dad was not very much inclined towards Don, he knew who the master of the house was. Don would go to my dad whenever there was a cracker burst or a loud thunder.

Time moved on and I had also moved out of my home at Madurai for professional reasons. 7 years passed by and my parents started to feel the pain. They didn’t have enough time and energy to take care of themselves. It was becoming apparent that it was becoming impossible to properly take care of Don along with their ailment. Meanwhile, Don had not changed. He was in fact expecting more out of my mom. In the recent years, he often went berserk whenever he found that my mom was not paying enough attention to him. That was potentially turning out to be a big problem.

Though my mom never ever wanted to part with Don the time had come. We had already been through such iterations half-a-dozen times in the last few years. But at the end of it we would decide that we would never want to let him go.

But this time, it happened. I was largely to be blamed. It happened quickly. And not many know how badly I am hit by the incident.

I had enquired and got to know about Karuna Animal Welfare Association (formerly known as BSPCA). Don was put in a train from Madurai and picked up at Bangalore. We had him at my place for a few hours. My mom spoke to him for one last time over speaker phone and he did respond by barking. He was in fact looking at the door expecting her presence there.

Then my brother and I drove him to Hebbal where Karunas was located. It was surprising to note that he was so calm throughout his journey. He would look into our eyes and we would look into his. Both were watery and gloomy. It was a very long drive for all of us. Don realized what was in store and was in tears. That was the first time I saw an animal crying. He was an intelligent dog and it did not come as a surprise to me at all. I could just remember the days when we had earlier talked about giving it to somebody. On all such occasions it would take a deep breath and then let out air. No wonder it had tears this time around.

Somebody had to do the job of handing over Mr.Don My brother was never inclined to this and shied off. It was no ordinary task and needed lots of courage. I could only have a consolation at the back of my mind knowing that I was helping my folks back home recuperate a little better.

After reaching the place, I finished the formalities. Bro, I and the person who assists my parents back home (who accompanied Don to Bangalore) took a couple of snaps with Don. Without being able to take it, my brother quickly left the place to cry behind the raised windshields of his car. Then it was time that I handed over Don to its new mom and dad – Raju and Padma at Karunas. I chocked but quickly re-grouped to list down what the likes and don’t-likes of Don were to Padma. Don started barking furiously. I just had one final glimpse at Don and how good the other dogs were taken care there, drew some confidence out of it and left the place. The return journey was even much longer one.

From then on it has been like only mono-syllable talk at home. I am sure my wife understood it better and coped well without complaining. Though I am very poor when it comes to consoling others, I at least had to listen to the cries of my mom over phone. I have betrayed myself by posing to be courageous enough to arrange the whole thing. It was difficult for me to hide my emotions. I have been subjected to hours of crying and lamenting behind closed doors, on the bed, in restrooms, on the bike and in the park. It is an irony that I had Don so close to my heart and still felt that people would laugh at me for my child-like weeping that I resorted to letting out emotion behind closed doors.

Here is the take-away that I have derived out of my own experience. You cannot shrug off from having attachment towards loved ones like mom, dad, wife or friends. But please do think thousand times before you adopt a pet. You should do justice to the pet and yourself. If you have the slightest of doubts about the time and energy that you would be able to spend with your pet, don’t go in for an adoption. It is a commitment like marriage. No matter how hard-hearted you are, you can never easily part with your loved pet at the later stage. It would be very painful.

Though we had given the best of what we could provide Don for 7 years, we regret that we count not continue doing the same at the fag end. I wish all this results in the well-being of Don at the new place rather than being at Madurai and we not being able to properly take care of him. I can just hope that Don copes better at the new place and learns to live with his other animal mates.

It would still be great if he gets a better parent who would shower unconditional love at him and provide him royal treatment. Don is used to it for no fault of his and therefore this expectancy.

John Abraham and his female fans.

2006-10-07T11:22:00.000+05:30

Recently, a friend of mine expressed her love for John Abraham. She said that she loved him for his charisma. I said "What? You too?". I have always wondered why the female crowd especially in India is so crazy about John Abraham. There are lots of other guys who are much more charismatic than JA; Surya. Madhavan. Abhishek. Aamir. Hrithik.

Since we are talking about a star of Bollywood, I will restric myself in touching base with some of the more charismatic heroes of Kollywood. Personally, Hrithik Roshan is the best in terms of personality. I would also rate Abhishek equally.

Hrithik is not a stereotyped-template like JA. Hair Styles: Any hair style would go on Hrithik. The only style that JA seems to sport is threaded hair running over his face. Clothing: Needless to say. Hrithik can sport anything; including JA's signature - white banyan with a black jacket on top. Even in terms of physique and dancing - the winner is clear. My friend, do you need any more reasons?

Folks, what is your opinion? I seriously feel that a female and a male are totally different in different worlds when they sit on a table to evaluate the personality of person belonging to the same sex. I guess that is why they have lots of guys evalating a female beauty pageant. Huh!!

* Look Alikes? Hrithik and George Michael.

Yahoo's privileged user!

2006-09-27T12:29:00.000+05:30

Two weeks back, I was so happy to see an "Outlook-like" Yahoo Web mail. It read "Yahoo Mail Beta". I was able to Drag and drop items onto different folders. Mark multiple items and perform an action. Cool shortcuts. Great speed. Awesome experience. Amazing! I said to myself. I just wished it not be a one time affair.

I even went home without closing the browser window after I heard colleagues claiming this to be a random beta testing which would be available for only one session. But later I realized it was not to be true. Yahoo!! I am Yahoo's privileged user! Everytime I login, I am taken to the Yahoo Mail Beta environment. So far no complaints.

Yahoo is back to rock! Try it whenever the offering is there and you would love it!

Dasavatharam: Ten faces in two languages?

2006-09-22T20:31:00.000+05:30

Tit Bits on Dasavatharam

Mr.Milton and a few others...

2006-09-05T14:01:00.000+05:30

I got up today and tuned myself onto a few characters that surfaced in front of my eyes.

Mr.Milton - The guy was 6 foot 2 inches tall. He had a tiger’s teeth attached as a pendant to his heavy jewelry over his neck. He had his own fashion statement showing off his hair in his chest. He always had untrimmed hair and an ambushed beard. He rode a bullet and his favorite statement – “I don’t get paid enough even to fuel my bike”.

Mr.Vellai Chammy - “White God” in English. He sported white pants and was more charismatic and stylish than Mr.Milton. He was instrumental in motivating youngsters.

The Rosario sisters. These sisters are in all shapes and sizes. They are instrumental behind my writing here.

Swarnalatha and Angayarkanni – Ladies whose voices can be heard for a few kilo meters but with pleasing personalities.

Radhika and Shanthi.

Radhika was the one who was so concerned and affectionate towards me. Radhika would smile at me suddenly which would shock others around. More than others, the timing would shock me. Bolt from the blue! Her favorite line was “What do you think? Am I sitting here and hatching eggs?” She had a huge glass which covered half of her face and a long threaded hair style.

I know Shanthi more as an emotional vessel than anything else. I remember the moments when rumors spread like a forest fire spreading the message that she had scratched the name of one of my buddies in her arms and that too with a blade. Her favorite line was “Please… Please… I am going.”

You might wonder what these characters have to do with me. Well, they were some of the interesting characters who were associated with my 14 years of school education at S.D.H Jain Vidyalaya, Madurai. There are lots of people left out. May be there should be a seperate post on them very soon. A little more detailing would be interesting here.

Mr.Milton was the guy who was expected to perform better than any other staff by the school management. He was a totally different Math teacher. He set strict rules on even the order in which we had to answer the question paper. If some body did not follow it, he wouldn’t simply evaluate the answer sheet and would score 0. He knew what he had to do to produce centums year after year. Now I heard that he has moved out of the school. Petrol rates are too high these days you see!

Mr.Vellai Chamy was the guy who talked about the subject I hated the most – Chemistry. When he left, he left us crying with a very emotional speech. Probably the first time that we realized that we would be really missing someone.

Roasarios – still play an active part of the school. They teach the KG kids – probably the only time I loved school life so much. Even today, they remember everybody by name and across generations. They are part of most of the families.

Swarnalatha and Angayarkanni – teachers who taught us Tamil. They gave me a tough time with half a mark deducted for every spelling mistake. When the situation reached a stage were I saw my marks going negative, I switched to Sanskrit (for my second language paper) and managed to pass out by writing the exam in english! Thank god!

Shanthi taught us Botany. She would often leave the class not being able to manage the torrid times that we had to offer her. But she was quite generous in awarding high scores. Even if we din't get one, we could pamper her and get it done, before the scores reached the rank cards.

Radhika taught us English. I guess she left the school when my batch was moving towards the higher secondary. It’s a pity that I have lost the personal greeting card that she had given to me when she left.

Happy teacher’s day!! Thanks for the seeds that you sowed in us. No matter what, we still remember each one of you. We thank you for being a part of our success stories.

Agassi... Simply the best!

2006-09-01T11:47:00.000+05:30

I was overcome by emotion and was in tears when the match ended. A phenomenal contest which saw the player how was young at heart win the match. Andre Agassi would be 36 years old, but he show cased why he is one of the all time greats in Tennis. And it was quite an emotional moment when Andre and Bagdhatis embraced and wished each other at the end of the epic match. That is what is called "Sportsmanship". I personally feel it’s difficult to keep such a spirit both during agony and ecstasy. And tennis remains a sport where you often get to see such good examples.

It was just another match which seemed it would never end. Another match which kept swinging both ways. Another match which made you bit off your finger nails. Another match which was such a delight to watch.

The 21-year old, Bagdhatis, played so well and could have put an end to Andre if he had been physically fit - to the fullest. But that is that what a sport is all about? It is about endurance ... both physically and mentally. But yes, no one could disagree that it was sad to see Bagdhatis not at his very best of physic because of the cramps that got on him in the last set.

Saying that, you cannot take away the credit from Andre. He did it in his own style. He knows how to finish matches. It was nothing new. It makes you wonder-struck. While I was wondering how he was able to compose himself so well... John McEnroe asked him the same question after the match. He was cool about it and replied that he was quite happy to live his dream for this long and thanked the human spirit for motivating him to deliver his best.

Have you ever thought of something like this? Living a dream for 20 years!! Well, for most of us dreams remain dreams. I dream of being a sporty-fit person when I reach 40. But drawing inspiration from people like Andre and McGrath would be easy and staying committed to achieve that dream would be really hard. I am happy that I at least have my motivation level reaching a new high after watching this match.

Vetayadu Vilayadu

2006-08-28T10:44:00.000+05:30

I got to watch Vetayadu Vilayadu (Hunt and have fun) here at Bangalore. Apart from the visual treat that the film had to offer, I also got a chance to catch up with the fan-following related whistles, claps that is very common in Tamil Nadu. But I was relieved that they did not over do it, as I was able to watch the film comfortably without too many paper bits flying all around as you would see in a Rajnikanth's movie.

I personally liked the movie for too many reasons - the cinematography, the background score, the holloywood kind of visuals taken in New York (where the major part of the story revolves around) and the charismatic Kamal Hassan. And it was realistic. Kamal Hassan's age shows, but he lives up to the expectations of the character.

The movie is an episode that takes place in a Cop's life. Though its just another cop story where the cop gets over the bad guys, its a well narrated story that keeps you at the edge of your seat through out the movie.

DCP Raghavan (Kamal Hassan) goes to Madurai to investigate the gruesome murder of the daughter of the City Police Commissioner. Rani gets brutally raped and her finger is hung as a dristi rope along with three green chillies and a lemon, outside her house. This is how the story begins.

If you hate such scenes please avoid the movie. There are a lot more scenes in those lines. Gruesome acts by psychopathic serial killers!! Though the violence part is on the high in the movie, I guess with all the violence headlines going around in the real world, its just the reflection of the sort of crime that happens in the society today.

Here are some other interesting aspects about the movie...

There are many scenes where the cop is on conversation using his Motorola V3 Razr mobile phone. And guess what is the tone that has been used... its "Hello Moto". I think there is a commercial part associated to it. No wonder that Motorola is quite desperate to reach the No.1 spot in the mobile industry.

And don't get to the movie expecting too much of the usual romantic scenes in Kamal Hassan's movie. There is hardly a scene where he touches Jo. So don't expect a hollywood touch from that view point. Doubt if that was a part of the aggrement before Jo agreed to do the movie. Oh! I guess that is getting too much and will stop it here!

And there are loads and loads of censorship done to the bad language used through out the movie. Both in english (for the shots taken in the US) and in tamil (shots taken in Chennai). But of course there could be this justification that cops need to use these words to match them word-for-word just as they match them hit-for-hit. Huh!

My wife felt that the movie was not as entertaining as Kakha Kakha and was disturbed by the violence shown. But I felt that it was a good movie to watch... because it was different. Its different from most of the Tamil movies made today and different in many aspects. Thumbs up to the movie.

I doubt if I would have liked the movie to this extent, if it had been watched via a DVD on a TV. Have to watch the movie at the theatres to enjoy the superb visuals and the musical treat, and not to forget the timely comments passed by the audience. It was a plus, because there is no other major commedy element attached to the film. So, watch it in theaters and you could help the no-piracy movement also!

Surviving an attack

2006-08-24T12:54:00.000+05:30

A forward that might help...

Let's say it's around 10 PM and you are going home (alone of course), after an unusually hard day on the job. You are really tired, upset and frustrated. Suddenly you start experiencing severe pain in yourchest that starts to adiate out into your arm and upinto your jaw. You are only about five miles from the hospital nearest your home or to somebody who can help you out.

Unfortunately you do not know if you will be able to make it that far. You havebeen trained in CPR, but the guy that taught thecourse did not tell you how to perform it on yourself. So how do you cope with the situation?

Since many people are alone when they suffer a heartattack, without help, the person whose heart is beating improperly and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left before losing consciousness. However, these victims can help themselves by coughing repeatedly and very vigorously. A deep breath should be taken before each cough, and the cough must be deepand prolonged, as when producing sputum from deepinside the chest. A breath and a cough must be repeated about every twoseconds without let-up until help arrives, or untilthe heart is felt to be beating normally again.

Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughingmovements squeeze the heart and keep the bloodcirculating. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack victims can get themselves to the nearest hospital or helping point.

Internet Explorer 7

2006-08-24T11:11:00.000+05:30

Checked out IE 7 (Beta) and have fell in love with it.

I accept the fact that Microsoft does a lot of copy-cat stuff and it is no wonder that they were the ones who introduced the concept of "copy-paste"-ing. In one of my previous posts I had talked about Mozilla FireFox and the new concept of tabbed web pages under one browser window. I was for sure waiting for a similar version from windows.

Yesterday, I downloaded the software and checked it out. I was amazed by the improvisation done by Microsoft on the "copied" stuff from FireFox.

For me the most amazing feature was the Quick Tabs (which is something new ... I would call it an improvisation on the tab idea). For a guy like me who open hundreds of WebPages a day, it gives me a quick snapshot of all the WebPages I have opened. I can just click the one I want to switch to and get into it. And that lets me have only one browser window to manage all the pages I visit.

But hey, they validate you to have an original windows version when you download. Do you have one?

Latest Version Features * Download * Microsoft Interent Explorer

The Broken Strings

2006-08-17T10:28:00.000+05:30

Bangalore might have been a dream place to live a decade back. But personally I look at it as a much-hyped city than anything else. And don't ask me what I do to make it better. I admit that I don't do much. But I do whatever that is easily possible for me to make it a better place. One, I don't throw garbage on the streets. Two, I guess I have become a more sensible rider of the two-wheeler. I don't storm into the other side of the road to beat traffic. Well, most of the times. :) And, what could be the reasons that we are so careless about caring for Bangalore? We had a little chat at the office about this and most of us felt that a major part of Bangalore is filled with aliens and that could be the vital reason. People who have settled here from the neighboring states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerela; for the young and the old, Bangalore has changed very little in terms of giving them a pleasure but for the weather factor.

The new initiatives like the "Refresh Bangalore" where great minds have started brainstorming on the ways to effectively improve the city are welcoming ones. They are more action oriented and that is the good part. It is in the initial phases and one has to wait to see if it is just another bureaucratic move. Gone are the days when you take pictures of the bad state of roads and email it to people and just hope that the city gets better. There is no room for such wishful thinking any more.

Okay, taking a deviation and thinking more in terms of the different breeds of people that Bangalore accommodates makes me write about something else. I come across very few native Bangalore-ians. Interestingly, when we meet new people at office and in public, most of us tend to pop up the question - Where do you come from? Answers - Tamil Nadu. Andhra. Kerela. Bihar. Delhi. Kolkota. Mysore. And then there would be Bangalore!! And when I ask many about their roots - parents, most of them feel that they are pretty happy at their Native place doing what they have been doing all these years and would not relocate here. That has been the case with me too. And that is the sad part. You would love to have them next to you and spend at least a couple of after-office hours with them. But how many get that opportunity? When I was single I visited my parents quite frequently. Now being married and both of us working the frequency has reduced. I am aware that I am not doing any good in taking the extra effort to connect to them often … in person! But I am also lucky that I am not too far away from them.

All the laughing, joking, sarcasms, talking, crying is done over Abhraham's instrument. Or should I be saying Dhirubhai Ambani’s instrument. We have a Reliance phone which can talk to any other reliance phone non-stop for a rental of Rs.750/- bucks a month. That's not bad.

But I must agree that even the time spent on the phone has come down. It could be for varied reasons. Mostly it is because we aren't in the same place and both the ends aren't free when the other one wishes to talk. It is when the family next door visits your place when the phone rings. When you call your folks back home there is a doctor who is entering to treat patent’s ailments and therefore an abrupt end. The call gets postponed. And so does the enthusiasm. You concentrate on something else and that is it. Fast paced life. Hell with it!!

My wife and me are missing our parents so badly and wish we could spend some time with them. Breaking the normal routine of we visiting them, we wish they could have a break at our place in Bangalore. I just spoke with my dad who isn't doing very well and got him evaluate the option of spending at least a couple of days with us during holidays. My mom would love to have such a break and be with us. But my dad is a hard nut to crack. I am just hoping that they make their trip here. I am sure it is going to be a pleasant change for every one of us. It would definitely be a special one for us as it would be the first time that they would be coming here after our marriage. Need to have better plans to reconnect to the broken strings... meaning living together with them.

Coming back to Bangalore, the administration needs to take even more innovative and tougher decisions to connect all the broken strings and make it really a "Sakka Hottu Maga..." city to live in.

A new beginning...

2006-08-15T19:03:00.000+05:30

Got wired and going wireless

2006-08-04T18:43:00.000+05:30

I guess this has been the longest gap between two postings in my blog. I switched companies and it took quite some time to settle down. All these days, it was tough to stay offline from the connected world. It was very difficult than that I had imagined earlier. I am now breathing back after getting wired to the connected world of internet.

And thanks to all those guys who had visited my blog and had asked if I was alive or not. Thanks for constantly checking my space. To all of you guys here is the update.

I have moved to Cognizant, a company which works on offshore-onsite model and which exercises on the services space. And I consider myself still lucky to stay attached to the telecom domain as most of the work that I have been associated with has been in the same domain.

This time around, I am going wireless. That is, I am getting into the development of embedded Wireless applications for the mobile devices. It is a bigger role and so are the expectations out of it. Wireless application development is a cool thing but can become a pain when ported onto devices. I just hope all the prior experience with J2ME and Qualcomm BREW comes in handy.

The sense of ownership and the freedom to innovate at work are the few good feelings that I have already started experiencing at the new place. I have been endowed with the responsibility and at the same time given the freedom to strategically plan and implement a way by which competency can be built on the wireless development arena. I am excited about the assignment and at the same time am aware of the steep mountain to climb. It would definitely be a challenge but a challenge that would give me a first real foretaste of what I am capable in terms of management, planning, scheduling, apart from delivering on the technological front.

Football Mauling & it's effect

2006-07-10T15:18:00.000+05:30

FIFA World Cup 2006 finally concluded with some unsavory drama through the finals between Italy and France. I had a feeling that France would pip through, but it did not work out that way.

It was an interesting match which kept everyone at the edge of their seats till the last penalty was taken. But it was a disgrace for ZiZu and the French to have ended the way they did. I am not talking about the fashion in which they lost the match, but the way for the fact they were the better team on field and loosing a match in penalties was not uncommon in Football-ing history. But Zidane's header saw Marco Materazzi, the Italian Defender on the ground within milli-seconds and thankfully he was alive after that incident.

It was a disgrace for the game, a disgrace for a nation. It was unfortunate to see the end of a wonderful player called "Zinedine Zidane" via a red card and that too at a World Cup final. Though sledging could have been the reason for such an act, it is quite common in most of the team-sports and such a kind of retaliation cannot be pardoned.

After all the watching that I had done this World Cup, I feel that though it is good that everybody talks about this great sport and have their own inspirations, it had lots of venues for negativity. I remember imitating great legends when I was a kid; be it tennis, football or cricket. And so would most of the kids be it yesterday, today or tomorrow !

Wouldn’t the kids around the world be inspired to do the following after watching the games? - Dive on every opportunity and give a different perspective to the referee, rather than tackling through the defense? Adhere to tough challenges and retaliate with vengeance to challenges? Have no respect for ethics, sportiveness and have only one aim – that is to win the game, no matter what.

At the end of it, everyone is a kid at heart. We have seen players inconsolably cry after defeats. We have seen players resort to hitting opponents and opponent team’s management staff after a loss. I persoanlly feel that there needs to be a drive by FIFA to bring on some nicities to football. It should start at ground level across the world and a there must be a constant promotion of the same in media for people to get inspired with the whole concept.

Was it more of a negative learning that the games had to offer this time around? I guess the answer is YES, and it is high time the governing body starts acting on it.

[Updated] How good was the 2006 World Cup?

The lost wallet and the gained knowledge

2006-07-04T15:04:00.000+05:30

It was one of those evenings yesterday - a highly dramatic one, which made emotions run on a roller coaster.

After getting back home and lazily stretching myself, I was preparing to get to play some tennis. My wife did not want to stay home alone and therefore hinted to accompany me. For reasons unknown, I allowed her to carry my purse rather than me carrying it in the bag. I even remember warning her that she should be careful because of the short pocket in the track that she wore.

Soon we were flying on the highway. Remember the highway to hell, yeah, the same road. After we had hit and bumped off the pot holes consistently, it struck my wife to check her pocket for the existence of the purse. Would it be there? No! She screamed and in turn my wheels screamed and halted.

We made around three to four rounds of searching with a panic look on our faces and enquired many. My wife was too tensed and I could feel the extra heat in my head even though it was a cool evening. My brother and sis-in law also joined us soon to the spot to help us find the wallet. It was a futile effort.

We then raced back home and began the ordeal of de-activating the key to all the e-Money that were available on the wallet through the debit and credit cards. It was learning for all of us! I had neither the credit card numbers nor their respective customer care numbers. What a shame!

It was the moment to learn what needs to be and what should not be kept in a wallet. I was carrying too many cards which I rarely used. I was carrying original licenses and signed bank cheques. I was not carrying my visiting card or my contact number. So that reduced the chances of me regaining my purse even if it went to a genuine person.

But I realized that the only connectivity was the Club’s id that I had in my wallet. So, I called them and told them about the happening. Though I had the least hope of regaining my purse, I requested them to have my purse in case someone dropped in and handed over the same to the club.

To our surprise, we got a call from the club within minutes. Somebody had called them and we were so ecstatic. My brother wanted everyone to stay calm until we got it on hand. It was so nice of this person to have claimed the purse on the road and to have linked to us. We thanked them a lot and came home. I found that one of my loved possessions was alone missing. It was this Thumb Drive and was influenced not to bother about it much.

It was a great relief for all of us. Lessons learnt!! Here are the Dos and Dont's that I would suggest to everyone to avoid pain even after loosing their wallet...

5. Do not carry too much of cash. Have a small home bank, where you withdraw and retain the money. Keep retrieving from that and spend. It also helps you to be “intelligently” aware of your expenses!
4. Once you carry any debit or credit card in your wallet, do note down the card numbers, the banks customer service number and all other details associated with it in a place other than your purse. Phone is a viable option to retain such data, but again it could become a source of information leakage.
3. Do not CARRY original government issued documents, unless there is a need. Have a duplicate.
2. Do not CARRY too many credit or debit cards. Avoid carrying them if you use them rarely.
1. Do have your name, address and contact number in the wallet.

French Fries For Brazil

2006-07-03T11:53:00.000+05:30

Brazilians were offered the French Fries! And it seems no one saw it coming.

It was a surprise for all the fans who thought Brazilians would make it to the finals and not for me. It was a late night match and therefore many hit the bed with the hope of Brazilians crushing the French. It was I who informed my neighbors the next morning about the result and not many believed me and asked me not to joke, as they knew that I did not like the Brazilian’s performance at this World Cup and that I was among the only few who backed Ghana in the pre-quarters.

As I had commented earlier, Brazilians were too complacent in the games and this time around did not have a chance at the opponent’s goal till the last few minutes. It was a well planned defense of the French which irritated the forward line of the world champions as they were never allowed to have a good shot at the goal. In contrast Zizu (Zinedine Zidane) and co played a very well planned game with intermittent bursts at the opponent’s goal post. Zidane was instrumental in almost all the attacks that the french made.

I have always loved the two most charismatic players of this era - Henry and Ronaldinho. Both of them had not performed up to their expectations in this tournament. But this time around, Henry rose to his credentials with the deft touch which resulted in the goal. It was clever of him to come from behind the defense line and surge ahead with his foot in the air to drive past home the winner.

Not many liked the French Fry offering though...

Red or Yellow?

2006-06-27T13:09:00.000+05:30

Football is such a fascinating game for all that is associated with it - 22 players to start with, referees, yellow cards, red cards, goal keepers, the Ds, the studs on the boots, the posts, the fouls, the souls, the passion, the money, the pride and the love it has got all around the world. The FIFA World Cup 2006 has just brought the world's focus to a particular game, which probably might be the mostly followed game on earth.

If it was Cameroon and Senegal in the previous World Cups that showed us the brilliance of African football, this time around it was T&T and Ghana. T&T had a solid defense, but lacked a sting in attack. Ghana on the other hand has a good defense and a capable attack.

I am very much eagerly awaiting today’s clash between Ghana and Brazil in the pre-quarters. I wish Ghana beat the world champions. I suppose even if they loose, it would be an interesting 90 minutes of entertainment. The major worry that Ghana have is that some of their Key players like Michael Essien are not available for the match due to injury and yellow cards earned in the previous matches.

I have admired Ghana, Australia, Czech and Mexico teams in this world cup. Every time, I have this feeling of supporting a lesser-known team and am inspired to support them when I see their talent and eagerness to gain the cup. And newer the talent, the more competitive it gets and there by entertainment is to its fullest.

It was quite unfortunate to see the exit of the Aussies against Italy. They played exceptionally well and deserved to go to the semis. They were on course but for the wrong decision of the referee coming with just 5 seconds to go. Totti scored the penalty kick and I guess Italy would easily make it to the Semis. Usually Italy does not have their luck especially with penalties, but this time around it saved them in staying in the competition.

The quality of umpiring in this World Cup has been quite a debatable one. Personally I feel that a few umpires should not have been employed at this big stage. They repetitively kept being too stubborn and therefore could not have total control. They were also prey to “acts” of a few exceptionally talented “actors” on the field. The pre-quarters match between Portugal and Holland was such a nasty one, that it has created a new record at the world cup for the most number of cards issued. That is a pity!

People have started to talk about third-umpires and technology coming to rescue. I feel that the charm of the game would be lost if such referrals are made. Football is a fast paced game and decisions have to be instantaneously made. There is no room for time like in Cricket. The referee is the one who should have a complete control of the match. It is not humanly possible to have cent percent correct decisions all the time.

But it hurts and urges you to have a different perspective on the whole issue, when your favourite team becomes a victim of the same. I just wish that no bad decisions come in the way of Ghana upsetting Brazil.

Yes, you could say that I am too optimistic. Yeah, may be I am. It is the voice of an eager fan who expects the unexpected to happen! Ghana-ians have nothing to loose. Who is going to pip thorugh ... Yellow (Brazil) or Red (Ghana)? Let us wait and watch.

Read the preview for the game
Updated: The Result

Clicks!

2006-06-20T14:44:00.000+05:30

Purampokku!

2006-06-07T17:14:00.000+05:30

Purampokku = Puram (outside) + pokku (wayward path)

Wondering where I can find such linguistic insights on more specific Madras tamil slang words like Aapu adchichu, Aalinaal Alaguraaja, Aathaadi, Baadu', Baeku, Biscothu, Bittu, Gaali, Galiju, Iskool, Kabodhi, Kamnatti, Kasmaalam, Matteru, Paruppu, Takkar, Thodda, Yechakale etc.. ? The answer is WiKiPedia.

Madras slag is getting world renown!

What a Sport!

2006-06-05T13:55:00.000+05:30

It is always a delight to watch the tennis that is played at Roland Garros.

Tennis blossoms to beauty with the long clay court rallies and beautiful colors at the French Open held at Paris. This year too, I have been closely following the matches via Ten Sports and have been thoroughly enjoying it.

For the first time, the tournament has been extended by 15 days and that acts as a source of additional excitement for the audience.

I feel these four guys in picture i.e., Mario Ancic, Gael Monfils, Nadal and Roger Federer are the hot contendors for the last 4. It would be a treat to watch a 5 setter-finals. I believe that it would end that way with all the young guns firing big time and troubling the top seeds.

Shivaji - Debate over the getup

2006-06-01T17:00:00.000+05:30

My previous posting on Rajnikanth's upcoming film - Shivaji, drew a lot of online traffic. Recently, lots of shooting spot snaps in Spain have been floating around through e-mail and to be frank I went "Yuk!" at seeing them. I guess these snaps were taken during the shooting of a comical song like the one of Prabhu Deva's where he and the co-dancers are dressed up in Elvis Presley stlye. Even if this was not the motive, I guess it would finally end up that way :)

Friends, especially to the numerous Rajni fans, there is no offence intended here. But please do let me know if you really like his new getup without any reservations.

Video Links:
Shooting spot video from Spain
Rajni... making the moves!

A Boss is a Boss!

2006-05-29T17:46:00.000+05:30

When I take a long time to finish,
I am slow,
When my boss takes a long time,
He is thorough.

When I don't do it,
I am lazy,
When my boss does not do it,
He is busy.

When I do something without being told,
I am trying to be smart,
When my boss does the same,
He takes the initiative.

When I please my boss,
I am apple polishing,
When my boss pleases his boss,
He is cooperating.

When I make a mistake,
You're an idiot.
When my boss makes a mistake,
He's only human.

When I am out of the office,
I am wondering around.
When my boss is out of the office,
He's on business.

When I am on a day off sick,
I am always sick.
When my boss is a day off sick,
He must be very ill.

When I apply for leave,
I must be going for an interview
When my boss applies for leave,
It's because he's overworked.

When I do well,
My boss never remembers,
When I do wrong,
He never forgets.

[Source: eMail Forward]

It's a dog's life!

2006-05-29T17:39:00.000+05:30

A butcher watching over his shop is really surprised when he sees a dog coming inside the shop. He shoos him away. But later, the dog is back again. So, he goes over to he dog and notices it has a note in its mouth. He takes the note and it reads "Can I have 12 sausages and a leg of lamb, please? The dog has money in its mouth, as well."

The butcher looks inside and, lo and behold, there is a ten dollar note there. So he takes the money and puts the sausages and lamb in a bag, placing it in the dog's mouth. The butcher is so impressed, and since it's about closing time, he decides to shut the shop and follow the dog.

So off he goes. The dog is walking down the street, when it comes to a level crossing; the dog puts down the bag, jumps up and presses the button. Then it waits patiently, bag in mouth, for the lights to turn. They do, and it walks across the road, with the butcher following him all the way.

The dog then comes to a bus stop, and starts looking at the timetable. The butcher is in awe as the dog stops a bus by pulling its left leg up and gets in it. The butcher follows the dog into the bus. The dog then shows a ticket which is tied to its belt to the bus conductor. The butcher is nearly fainting at this sight, so are the other passengers in the bus. The dog then sits near the driver's seat looking outside. As soon as the stop is in sight, the dog stands and wags its tail to inform the conductor. Then, without waiting for the bus to stop completely, it jumps out of the bus and runs to a house very close to the stop. It opens the big Iron Gate and rushes inside towards the door. As it approaches the wooden door, the dog suddenly changes its mind and heads towards the garden. It goes to the window, and beats its head against it several times, walks back, jumps off, rings the door bell and waits at the door. The butcher watches as a big guy opens the door, and starts abusing the dog, kicking him and punching him, and swearing at him. The butcher surprised with this, runs up, and stops the guy.

"What in heaven's name are you doing? The dog is a genius. He could be on TV, for the life of me! "To which the guy responds: "You call this clever? This is the second time this week that this stupid dog's forgotten his key."

Moral of the story.....
You may continue to exceed on lookers expectations but shall always fall short of the boss's expectations. It's a dog's life after all!

[Source: eMail Forward]

eMazing e-India

2006-05-27T16:20:00.000+05:30

We often postpone to-do tasks just for the reason that we do not have enough time to do different things; especially tasks that require us to stand in queues and loose precious office hours. But with every one becoming tech-savyy the scene is changing pretty fast in India.

I knew that the e-Governance model in India would definitely turn effective one day. But I guess things are turning rosy sooner than expected. I have recently heard a lot of real-life experiences to validate the above claim.

The mass usage of the e-Media (read "internet") has urged the government and other players to venture into Internet solutions as a platform to deliver their services. For example services like public grievances, railway ticket booking, police complaints, passport application, etc., have gone online. No wonder India is the largest producer of Software Professionals in the world. Everyone from a 2 year old kid to the granny next door are e-savvy and access a variety of such services online.

I know many friends, who have lost their mobiles in their recent past. Many of them do not care to lodge a complaint, as they do not have the faith in the system and the vital time that is required for the same. And here is a story that would inspire you to lodge a complaint against it and win. Click on my friend's blog for more info on a real life incident. This correlation should justify the subject of this topic.

And to share a personal experience, I got a slot for giving in the passport application at the Passport Office in Bangalore for my wife, through this link. The link gave us a confirmation file number along with the slot timing as 3:46 PM. It also suggested us to be present at the passport office ten minutes prior to the given timing. We were there exactly at 3:35. Exactly at 3:46 PM, we were called onto the specified counter and within 5 minutes, the whole process was over. It was a pleasant surprise and I was amazed. Even after reaching home, I could not believe that such precision was exhibited at a government office.

Times are changing and changing fast.

Dream Big (Zero Defects)

2006-05-26T12:26:00.000+05:30

Ever dreamt of building a software with "ZERO" defects? Well, that was precisely the learning that I had out of the training that I underwent the last couple of days. I was excited about the training for many reasons. I was learning a lot of new things in terms of leadership, quality ideas and it was not the normal Quality training where the trainers talk only numbers and forget how to incorporate the daily engineering activities into it. It was a fresh initiative taken from the folks at Motorola, Bangalore and it was really good. They drove their point very neatly with team exercises to emphasise the learnings and they did it without using big-time conceptual words like Six Sigma and Black Belts.

Across organizations and the average software engineering pool, Quality is related to filling up the final audit sheet with bogus numbers so that the numbers do not look too good and at the same time they do not look too bad as well. Managers tend to stick onto deadlines and push the quality aspect out of the window. Reasons could be like improper estimation, go-to-market kind of projects where the customer has all the say.

So, Quality is considered to be an overhead. We forget to understand the concept that building a quality product in the first place could have saved us a lot of effort and cost in that incurred in the later stages. If we tend to believe that we cut the villain (read “D E F E C T S”) at the early stages itself, we could have a smooth ride and the numbers would automatically fall in place on the audit sheet.

Here is a brief summary of the learning that I had. All the below aspects are the day to day routines that we come across, it is nothing drastically new. But the key is in believing that “Zero Defects” is possible and setting it as a goal on an individual space. Without a team belief and team discipline to bide by it, it would be difficult to achieve the same.

<- Dear reader, this content has been deleted for official reasons. Though the basic idea behind the content was to share knowledge, it was pointed out by my employer that it might be a case of letting out confidential (training) property. Though the deleted section was an outline of the recommended practises, I respect their view and am bound to remove it. I am sorry to all those who visited this link especially to know more on specific software quality engineering practises. - Kamz, 14 June 2006 ->

I now believe in whatever that has been shared here and would encourage you to follow it as well. It will definitely help – be it an individual or be it a team. I guess as a team we could and we should revolutionize the average processes followed in the software industry.

The Wright brothers had a dream. And they achieved the dream by continuous learning and improvement of processes. Let us dream that each one of us could write a zero defect code and achieve that through continuously evolving software engineering practises. Happy Software Engineering!

Rejuvenated!

2006-05-25T14:03:00.000+05:30

I forced myself to write somethig here today. Oflate there has been lot of happenings and the blogging part just blew away out of my sight. The reasons are multifold. Don't come to conclusions that I have had an opportunity to work on some intersting stuff. That link is still missing. I guess it doesn't happen that easily here. From January, I have not had much of work and I hate that. Work satisfaction has touched a new low!

To come over the idle mind pattern, I tried reading and learning new things. In the process got onto a few Microsoft certifications. But even that cannot keep your motivations high for a long time as it requires solid concentration and discipline. Though I enjoyed the postivness out of it in a different way, it did not act as a major source of getting revitalized.

Recently, I have joined a fitness club at my locality and have been re-discovering the sources that could kindle the kid feeling in me. Sports! Though I always knew it, it was a revelation that it could drastically have a positive effect on my approach towards a normal day. If one gets to do what one has a passion for, it rejuvenates the whole thinking process. For me it definitely helped.

I reach the skies and thump my fists as I win some hard fought rallies. Wow! What a feeling. Suddenly, I love life! I feel younger! Back to making cranky sounds and feeling happy rather than posing the moody long face as though life had nothing interesting to offer.

I just hope that this feeling lasts for some time tough. Wish me luck!

Sunset at Nandhi Hills

2006-05-01T08:52:00.000+05:30

With a lot of complaining and pressure from my wife for not having the attitude to explore the city (I call it as the zest to roam around the city and to while away time), I was forced to accept to the proposal of visiting Nandhi hills which is around 70 Kms from Bangalore. My brother had earlier suggested Okenakkel, but we had to withdraw from it for the reasons of bad road and the travel time.

We started at around 3:30 PM in the afternoon and reached Nandhi hills by 5:30 PM. We parked the car at the Sankey junction and walked about a KM to the top of the hill. After reaching there I thought it was worth having gone there that evening because of the scenic beauty and the fresh air that the place had to offer us.

The Sunset was awesome, with a surprising element attached to its foreground. There were three guys who were parachuting (not paragliding) amidst the hills. I was wondering from where they might have taken off. It could have either been from one of the hills around or from a flying object.

Though we did not have enough time to explore all the tourist spots over there, we came back with a pleasant "nature"al experience. We though we must again make it to this place some time in the winter and get lucky by getting to see the sunset as well. Here are some of the pics that I clicked. I experimented with the last snap by applying a few filters.

Gods on streets.

2006-04-30T09:19:00.000+05:30

Quite similar to the Alaghar (float) festival in Madurai, where the god Alaghar is carried through the streets of Madurai City, there was a festival in our streets in Bangalore.

However, here the Gods and Goddesses from all the temples in the locality were carried onto the streets in decorated chariots. Though the glamour, crowd, noise, excitement, crackers and the story like episode of the Madurai festival was missing, it was nice to see a mini-version of that happening in Bangalore. Here are some of the snaps that I clicked.

I will probably try to get the snaps taken during the Alaghar festival in Madurai last time. I guess I would not be able to make it to the festival this time around.

Comical Gangster or a Blockbuster?

2006-04-21T15:21:00.000+05:30

Check out the interactive website cum trailer of the film Pudhupettai. Some of the transcripts are funny but a nice initiative on interactive trailers for Tamil films. The interactive trailer suggests of a common story line about an innocent turining into a gangster; that's a pretty ordinary story line for a regular tamil film viewer. Wouldn't want to watch another movie with the usual and oblivious story line. Selvaragavan would be the key to make the difference. Will he deliver this time around?

18 Till I Die?

2006-04-19T11:56:00.000+05:30

How many times when you were young (I mean really young - during school days) did you boast around like an older fella than your actual age? It's a common phenomenon that we are quite eager to get to18 and then quickly get onto 21. And then when we hit 30, we tend to apply the brakes!

My brother sent me these tips to combat the feeling of becoming "Suddenly Senior". I thought of sharing these simple concepts that might help us to stay 18 till we die, with each one of you. And do read Six Steps to Happiness, a blog by one of my friends.

தமிழ் புத்தாண்டு வாழ்த்துக்கள்!

2006-04-14T11:28:00.000+05:30

Wishing you all a very happy Tamil new year. It's a second chance for us to hope for a better year ahead. So why to miss it. Let's take it!

It was a pity to see the hooglianism at Bangalore surrounding Dr.Rajkumar's death. I wish and pray that we don't loose any more lives in such acts of insanity. It was also a pity that this incident added another negative feather to Bangalore's Metropolitan Hat.

Oh Humanity, Heal the world.
Make it a better place, for you and for me.

The art of receiving

2006-04-07T13:47:00.000+05:30

I am sitting on the Razor edge as my wife presented me a Motorola Razr V3 phone last week; just like that, without any reason in particular. When asked, she revealed that she had planned to surprise me with a surprise gift.

With our first anniversary approaching, am I being influenced and being set levels for gifting? Huh! No, I did not take it that way. She was so excited in the whole process. I should have been magnanimous enough to accept it with a big smile. Even though I accepted it, I was cribbing about wasting money towards something which was not really necessary at that point in time.

It took me some time to realize the whole thing. It was late by the time that I realized that I did not make her happy in the whole process. And that is when I though I should build on a skill … the art of receiving. It was her joy to give and I was taking away her happiness if I was not receiving the gift. I did receive it, but I guess, I was not gracious enough to accept it graciously.

The mini vacation.

2006-04-06T13:29:00.000+05:30

I was off to Salem over the last weekend along with my wife. One of my wife’s pals lives there and it was a long due that we decided to visit her place on the occasion of her birthday.

I went and picked my wife at her office and headed to KPN Travels by auto. It was not surprising that the auto driver’s son worked for HCL and that his other son was just passing out of an engineering college. It was also not surprising that he quickly identified my badge and went onto ask what domain was I into. In fact, this guy was probably the fourth or fifth such guy I am coming across, who had a good education and well educated offspring. Bad roads coupled with such revelations, made me feel at home - at Bangalore, even though we were en route to Salem.

We were picked up at Salem by my wife’s friend and her cousin. In the brief travel from the bus stand to their house, I could notice that the place was quite similar to Madurai. But I thought, it was cleaner one. We were greeted and taken inside their home. Wow! What a piece of architecture or should I say design? It was a simple design of a rectangular structure with rooms in the corners and enough elevations for air and light to get into the house. Liked it and got a few inspiring leads for my second house that I would probably build in the times to come.

Aunty and uncle were so nice and down to earth and made us feel very comfortable. I got to interact with them and understood how they had come a long way in building a successful business. That was another inspiration. It is always nice to hear success stories coupled with facts that could inspire you.

The next day we greeted the birthday mam and hit the road to SkandAshramam along with couple of her friends who had traversed all the way from Bangalore in a 500 cc biking machine. The temple had unique Idols of god. I liked the way the Pujari did his preachings. I thought he should have been a good trainer some time back as he related all the concepts that he was preaching with modern day activities and slang.

On Sunday, we went to Arcaud. It was nice to take a break and venture out. And finally the Vacation trip that my wife wanted desperately came to life!

Photo Collage...
Salem, Arcaud SkandAshramam

And isn't it ironic?

2006-04-06T12:41:00.001+05:30

Have you ever heard to Ironic, the song by Alanis Morissette.

I was reminded of this song, when I was attending the induction program today. Do not think that I have joined some other company. I am attending my induction program (a series of training session for over two weeks) after spending more than a year in the company. I was pulled off the training due to project pressure in the initial phases after joining the company.

And isn't it ironic? Don't you think? But... Life has a funny way of sneaking up on you and life has a funny, funny way, of helping you out.

And BTW, the song goes like this.

An old man, turned 98
He won the lottery, and died the next day
It's a black fly in your chardonnay
It's a death row pardon, two minutes too late
And isn't it ironic?
Don't you think?

It's like rain, on your wedding day
It's a free ride, when you've already paid
It's the good advice, that you just didn't take
And who would've thought? It figures

Mr. Play-It-Safe, was afraid to fly
He packed his suitcase, and kissed his kids goodbye
He waited his whole damn life, to take that flight
And as the plane crashed down he thought, "Well isn't this nice"?
And isn't it ironic?
Don't you think?

It's like rain, on your wedding day
It's a free ride, when you've already paid
It's the good advice, that you just didn't take
And who would've thought? It figures

Well life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
When you think everything's okay and everything's going right
And life has a funny way of helping you out
When you think everything's gone wrong and everything blows up in your face

A traffic jam, when you're already late
A no smoking sign, on your cigarette break
It's like ten thousand spoons, when all you need is a knife
It's meeting the man of my dreams, and then meeting his beautiful wife
And isn't it ironic?
Don't you think?
A little too ironic?
Yeah I really do think

It's like rain, on your wedding day
It's a free ride, when you've already paid
It's the good advice, that you just didn't take
And who would've thought?
It figures

Life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
And life has a funny, funny way, of helping you out.

Mastering the gloomy feeling!

2006-03-24T12:17:00.000+05:30

I read a motivational article on the web. But I could not trace the link, so here is a brief of the learning that I had for the day.

There are times when you feel gloomy. This dejected feeling can hover over your professional and/or personal life. It is not easy to glide past it, unless you do something constructive about it. I was trying to find out how one could grow beyond this feeling with a positive approach.

It is Motivation. Motivation could be the vital weapon to combat the feeling of ‘feeling miserable’. Motivation can be developed and deployed for one's own sucess. People who demonstrate excellence have identified their motivations and worked hard to develop them. It is indeed a revelation that, if we slog in areas where we have low motivation, we resign ourselves to mediocrity. Without motivation you could be a mediocre! The first step to unlock one’s excellence is to know what one does well - naturally. And motivation can come from many angles and might vary from person to person.

Recently my wife asked me if I remembered the significance of that day. Immediate possibilities that came to my mind was our first meeting, marriage, birth days of different people; but then I wanted to check the date first. I checked the date and got to know that it was 24 March. Immediately it struck me.

Three years back, I joined TATA after the entrepreneurial venture with Mindwear. Even though we were not married then, it was nice to note that she knew that it was a noteworthy day in my life. The Chennai connection has been a pleasant one for me.

I was talking with my brother sometime back and just like that ended up talking about the huge opportunities that exists in Chennai. I stated that Chennai is a nice place to live and would not mind moving to, if an interesting option was available there some time down the line. He was not interested though. He revealed that my attachment towards Chennai could be because I had happy memories at Chennai. Then, I got to reach milestones in the professional and personal front. He was right! And that is what success can do to your thinking.

I guess it's time for me to get motivated! Let me do some soul searching... :)

The Graphical Space...

2006-03-22T12:55:00.000+05:30

For the past 3-4 years, we have seen too many emerging Indian News broadcasting channels. I am particularly attached to two of them for peculiar reasons. The most peculiar reason being the Graphics element in them.

One of these news channels emerged from the days of “The World This Week” (aired every Friday nights) on DoorDarshan. I see that as the program which instigated my interests in getting to know about the happenings around the world. At that age all (if not all, at least me) one would really love to do was to play cricket all day, have lots of food in the night, watch Oliyum Oliyum, Buniyaadh and to hit the bed. But it was nice to see the then middle aged man, Pranoy Roy getting us news of all kinds from around the world. I am sure he must be a lover of tablas as his programs title-music was tabla based and that continues to be the same even today with his channel NDTV 24x7. I loved the way he ended up his program then with some interesting bloopers from all around the world.

Then followed his association with Star Plus and Star News, wherein New Delhi Television produced the program for the Star group. And today we see the same guy being instrumental behind India’s top news channel NDTV 24x7. And talking about NDTV's initiative towards Graphics, it has invested in a complete graphical solution from Discreet: High-end visual effects systems with inferno® and flame®, editing and finishing with smoke® and background media management with backdraft™ after the initial stint with 2D graphics.

And which is the second channel that I am attached to? CNN-IBN. It was quite clear that many of the NDTV work forces had moved onto setup this broadcasting channel spear headed by Rajdeep Sardesai. I was really surprised with the quality and content, with which the channel was aired for the first time. I am sure the graphical content is far better than CNN itself.

I keenly follow the nitty-gritty graphic details in both these channels. I liked NDTV’s red (or should I say maroon>) flavored theme. Even though CNN-IBN started of well with great graphics, one could easily find that it was a ditto of NDTV graphic sense. Later I got to know that most of IBN’s graphic specialists were moved from NDTV and that made sense. So what? Were the templates also moved and modified minimally? Though such questions came to my mind, I liked the graphics. But it was odd to see even the transition effects of text being the same on both the channels.

I was eagerly looking forward to either of them changing their graphic presentation style. And my wish was answered by NDTV. Yesterday they shredded their usual graphic presentation style. Usually the text portion which sports the headlines, translation and scrollers occupies a decent amount of space on the screen and only 70% of the screen space would be used for the video.

I personally feel that the change that has been brought about is so cool. The scrolling text and ads are at the bottom most of the screen and still readable. The 3 lines of scrolling text has moved out and now it's just one line. The translation text has a soft black background which pops up and dies whenever necessary. That makes sense as the additional space is consumed only when necessary. It suddenly makes me feel that my 29’ TV screen has grown taller!! That is what space can do! And thanks to NDTV for considering a few other colors than red for the bullets and column blocks.

On the contrary, the content has also gone down. Instead of having all at one shot – i.e., Scrolling of news, ads, weather info, stock, time etc., each news comes on to the screen and moves out gracefully and in a nicely categorized manner as well.

I just love it! IBN, it’s your turn now. Can I expect such simple innovations in the graphical space? Looking forward to such healthy competitions.

The Golden Touch...

2006-03-20T15:05:00.000+05:30

Worked on couple of snaps taken during my house-warming cermemony in May 2005. I like the concept of projecting a unique color engrossed in a black and white background.

New Roads at Bangalore ...

2006-03-17T13:30:00.000+05:30

I cannot digest the fact that IndraNagar roads are getting a face lift (literally) while other path ways (wouldn't call roads as there are no signs of it) which desperately requires a proper road, are being neglected.

It is nice to see the newly elected CM Kumarasamy, personally inspecting the quality of roads and projects executed. But the apathy of the administration to take notice of areas which very badly requires some roads is sad. I personally feel that another layer of tar on top of a well-laid road in IndraNagar was unnecessary while thousands of people suffer immensely due to the ordeal that they have to go through in commuting through rough terrains and dust. I wonder why I should be paying TAX when there is no development work scheduled for the area where I dwell. Though that should not be the mentality of a tax payer, you are forced to such thoughts because of the pain of sufferings day in and day out.

Take for instance the area where I live - Kaggadaspura II Phase. This road connects Kaggadaspura Phase I road with Vignan Nagar. This stretch has plenty of apartments, schools, hospitals, commercial spaces and a college run by the Shanti Charitable Trust (SCT College of Engineering). In spite of all these establishments and a heavy traffic flow, the road has been neglected.

The road is quite muddy and sports thousands of holes. Your body is painted with a layer of dust when you traverse through this road. Even a small stint of rain makes the road a highway to heaven. Apart from this there are drainage problems with sewage flowing onto the road.

It is pathetic to see old people and young school and college going kids who commute by foot, holding their lives in their hands. There is no platform for them to walk. And they are not given the space, as the bikers don't take the road fearing the holes and travel only on the edges of the road.

It is only a pity that these kinds of roads go unnoticed as they can no way compete with the roads of posh areas like IndraNagar. We even think that we can serve ourselves better if each house in that stretch contributes an amount for the road. But why the heck we pay taxes? Aren’t we eligible even for the basic and very minimal facilities that are due from the Government? Many of us feel that it is high time that the Governemtn re-prioritizes the latest initiative by first identifying and deploying roads that are in ICU (Inferiorly cared units) list.

We are not asking for a formula one racing tracks. All we are asking for is a road which would sustain rains and which would enable safe commuting. Hello, is anybody listening?

TN politics ... turning dirty!

2006-03-16T16:15:00.000+05:30

This time around, Vaiko's MDMK is supposed to play a vital role in the elections in Tamil Nadu. No one might have thought that Vaiko would join hands with AIADMK.

DMK's supremo - M Karunanidhi sarcastically commented that had Vaiko stayed with them then it would have favoured Vaiko and he moving out of the alliance would infact favour DMK. But his supporters are already playing dirty politics with some back biting... Check out the poster on the left.

Video Highlights: SA beats Oz (Cricket / World Record)

2006-03-16T14:17:00.000+05:30

South Africa beat Australia in the recently concluded one day series 3-2. The final match was upto every ones' expectation with the series levelled 2-2. Result: Almost 900 runs scored on a day which tumbled many-a-records. SA emerged as the side to have chased the most number of runs in an one day international cricket match.

Watch the highlights (video) of the match via Google...

Holi and its correlations…

2006-03-15T15:57:00.000+05:30

Just like Holi, which is a colorful festival celebrated in India, the story behind celebrating a particular day of the year by hurling color powders and color water balloons at each other are a plenty. Holi is predominantly celebrated in North India. It brings home the lesson of spiritual and social harmony. Though it signifies the happy and colorful spring times ahead, people celebrate the same festival for many different reasons.

One version is that there was a bad guy (King) who got a boon from Lord Brahma that would restrict anybody to kill him. After getting the boon, the bad guy started advocating that he was the one and only Lord of the earth and pressed everyone to worship him. He had a son, who was a great devotee of Lord Vishnu. When the King of the three worlds could not stop his son from praying Vishnu, he decided to kill him. And as the saying goes, God does not let go his true devotees. He comes to the help of the young boy and saves him.

The story ends like this … “Lord Vishnu incarnated himself as Narasimha (half-man, half-lion) to destroy Hiranyakashyap. The legend has it, that he used his nails to destroy Hiranyakashyap, at dusk (neither the day nor night), and at the front porch of the house (neither indoors not outdoors). Thus, he satisfied the conditions of Brahma's boon and destroyed the evil.”

All that comes to my mind after reading the story’s ending lines is the karrupu thangam (read ‘black pearl’), hero from the south: Vijayakanth. Have you ever seen him playing Narasimha and vociferously shouting ‘Narasimhaaaa…’? Amazing! :p

But in the Southern part of India, the story is different. The most commonly believed one is that, Lord Shiva was meditating and without knowing that he was meditating, the daughter of Himalayas wanted to strike cupids arrow at him. Shiva was enraged and destroyed Kama, reducing him to a heap of ashes. Who is Kama? She is the God of love. Later Shiva resurrects Kama on the request of Rati (Kama's wife) and Parvati.

When you correlate this story with Tamil Cinema, the one who comes to my mind is again, Vijayakanth. Only the hero of ‘Vanathaipola’ can have such a kind heart in undoing his vengeance on an enemy.

And guys, what is happening to his new political party? Election related politics is peak in Tamil Nadu and there is not much of news about Vijayakanth’s party; at least not in the Bangalore news papers. How about there?
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Updated*
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What a coincidence? I got a Captain's movie clip (funny stunt) from one of my friends...

Can you read this?

2006-03-14T11:54:00.000+05:30

Another interesting forward....

Cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?

Mirage!!

2006-03-13T10:28:00.000+05:30

The picture released on NatGeo is an opticall illusion. You must have guessed the black spots on the image as Camels. They are not Camels, but their shadows.

Check them out by clicking here. This picture was taken from the top angle and therefore the camel is lean and the shadows are huge, resembling the actual animal. Logical!

Time Pass...

2006-03-09T17:04:00.000+05:30

Tried illustrating Ganesha idol on my office desk using MS Paint. Ended it up with some simple rendering effects using PhotoShop. I thought it has been long since I touched base with some art work. Ofcourse, digital art. Here is the outcome of that. Left one is the original snap...

Divine Proportion and Life (via Phi)

2006-03-07T13:39:00.000+05:30

I came to know about Phi and it's related contribution towards the divine proportion, from a friend. It is the harmony and glue that holds the unity of the universe.

The Divine Proportion was closely studied by the Greek sculptor, Phidias, and as a result, it took on the name of Phi. Also referred to as the Golden Mean, the Magic Ratio, the Fibonacci Series, etc., Phi can be found throughout the universe; from the spirals of galaxies to the spiral of a Nautilus seashell; from the harmony of music to the beauty in art. A botanist will find it in the growth patterns of flowers and plants, while the zoologist sees it in the breeding of rabbits. The entomologist views it in the genealogy of a bee, and the physicist observes it in the behavior of light and atoms. A Wall Street analyst finds it in the rising and falling patterns of a market, the mathematician in the examination of the pentagram.

Phi ... The only possible creative duality within Unity. It is the most intimate relationship, one might say, that proportional existence – the universe – can have with Unity, the primal or first division of One. For this reason the ancients called it ‘golden’, the perfect division, and the Christians have related this proportional symbol to the Son of God.

Just as pi is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, phi is simply the ratio of the line segments that result when a line is divided in one very special and unique way. i.e., Only when a line is cut into two sections at one significant and "magical" point!

Phi with an upper case "P" is 1.6180339887..., while phi with a lower case "p" is 0.6180339887.

Golden Links:

@ What is Phi? A quick learning.
@ The Golden number and the human body
@ The Golden Mean
@ The Fibonacci Series
@ The Golden Section in Art, Architecture and Music
@ The Golden Rule

Long time no see...

2006-03-06T17:19:00.000+05:30

It has been long since I wrote something here. I went into hibernation because I was in no mood to write something. My father has not been doing well, my mom is managing with her magical strength to control things, my relatives are into lot of problems, nothing much happening at office but politics and not to forget my attempts at taking on certifications… all these have been holding me up from writing. Well not literally!

Let me test my memory. What was happening all this while?? Thinking hard...

- India beat Pakistan convincingly in the one day series.
- Bird flu caught up with India.
- Followed by the anti-Bush fever on his visit to India. The nuke deal went through!
- India struggled against England in the opening test.
- Narrowly missed from getting hit by a car.
- Summer has begun and water levels has gone down in my apartment.
- Gan moved to Seattle.
- Kavi scored 4.3/5 in her rating.
- Giri resigns from Wipro; to take up an offer from Cap Gemini.
- Prady celebrated his first anniversary.
- Bobby got married.
- Chella gets married and is off to UK.
- Shri got married (on mom's birthday).
- Uma's hunt has slowly started to gather mass.
- Brought home a couple of paintings for the living room.
- Myself: On and off on the fitness objectives.
- Wife lost her hand bag in a bizarre manner.
- Wife's sis reported about a possible rhematology problem.
- Didn’t sleep last night because of a power cut.
- Had Idlis for lunch.
- Getting sick of typing something, just for the sake of typing something.
- Gone are the days when I maintained a daily dairy.

Huh! F$%k my memory!!

Yesterday and Today...

2006-02-22T12:20:00.000+05:30

A cartoonists' perspective on Bird Flu that has hit India.

Techies...

2006-02-17T11:51:00.000+05:30

Revenge Telemarketers!

2006-02-03T11:13:00.000+05:30

Ever wondered if there would be a day without some telemarketer calling you? That could soon be possible if everyone take up the ideas proposed by Martijn Engelbregt. Click on the below link to get to know the algorithm that you could follow to participate in the global initiative to protect one's privacy. Kinda' funny. T h e R e v e n g e

But I would never do such a thing!! After all they do their job and you can often end the call politely in a matter of 10-15 seconds.

Bowled all over...

2006-02-03T10:53:00.000+05:30

The Indian team has been bowled all over by the Pakistan pace attack, in the deciding test match at Karachi.

The first two tests had a flat pitch and both teams exhibited their batting talent. Records kept tumbling. The tail (the likes of Harbhajan and Akthar) raised their batting averages.

Then there was the final test with a green wicket. India started off with a dream start and as usual was floored at the end. The great Indian batting line up was exposed.

And now a fresh debate has started. Is it time for the Maestro to take the Ganuguly way. Experts opined that it would be a better idea for Tendulkar to get some match practice in the domestic cricketing arena. And you may ask who the experts are ... well it's you, me and the general public. Huh! And reasonably that makes a good point of argument. He has not been scoring at all and has been given a lot more chances than the ones who are waiting to don the Indian cap.

Dravid was talking about taking tough decisions before the test and he seems to have got it wrong. Anyways, wishing him and the team the very best of luck for the one day series.

Narain Karthikeyan turns a salaried person.

2006-01-28T11:52:00.000+05:30

Well, the headline of this post could have been much better. But Narain is much happier than ever before and is quite glad that he has turned out to be a salaried person atlast.

Willimas has confimed Narain Karthikeyan. Narain would be testing the FW28.

The news is officials and I don't see any top Indian news channel broadcasting it. This is what Williams F1 Team Prinicpal had to say... “Narain’s brief period in the car in December, during which he provided valuable feedback, made a very distinct impression on our engineers. Having a year’s GP racing and testing to his credit is also advantageous for us so I am pleased we can now formally confirm his appointment to the team.”

Read the official news
The Williams Team Pic
Williams Picture Gallery

Read the previous post on Narain

Though he had the backing of major sponsors, he had to pay a huge to Jordan. Williams has agreed to pay him for his testing role, but he cannot be taking all the sponsors to Williams. Williams is going to take a call on that.

Congratulations, once again.

Made of Sumos and Aruvals...

2006-01-27T10:06:00.000+05:30

Hero-Heroin Romance, Villan, Sumo and Aruval.

What are these? These days, all of the above are integral part of a common Tamil cinema.

You can guess the relation between the first two components. But how are they connected to Sumo (a four-wheeler vehicle) and Aruval (native swords)? If you have been following Tamil cinema for the last year or two, that question should not have popped up in your mind.

For readers from other parts of the world, let me do some explaining.

Aruval: is a slightly different version of a long sword used by olden day kings during wars. It can also be seen in Hindu temples were certain gods or their body-guards sport them in their armor to combat evil.

I should also mention the home-based utility version of the same, which is similar to a sickle. It's a shorter version with a small handle, used for slashing grass, small trees, coconut and the likes. So it's widely used by the common man too and therefore everyone is aware of it.

Nowadays it has been said and believed that the local gundas/dons use these aruvals (the former version mentioned here) as tools for assault. You may ask why not guns? I can only guess a few reasons for it. Aruvals are: easy to manufacture, produces no sound like guns during an assault except the "whisk-whisk" sound (where it cuts the air during a swing and produces a minimal sound) and importantly, gives a great amount of fear to the general public as they are more accustom to aruvals than to guns.

Next … TATA Sumo vehicles. It has been so widely used in Tamil Cinema and especially by the villain crowd. Advertising products or their ads in films is common. All this could probably leave the average audience like me, asking "Why do all villains have to use only Sumos and Aruvals?". Thankfully, of late there have been a few deviations though. I do see some Scorpios and other SUVs being used for the same purpose.

It is also funny to see a dozen Sumos (or the SUVs) fly in the air and make a head-on-head collision with each other. I have seen it in so many Tamil films now and I am not able to digest the fact that Kung Fu (and the related martial art forms) has moved the Tamil Cinema directors to such a level of thinking. They must have probably thought to bank on a similar idea with a localized touch to it. They should have told themselves "Kung Fu wouldn't work here, but flying SUMOs would definitely do." Oh God!

And all this connected to a flash-back of violence happening in the southern cities of Tamil Nadu like Madurai, Thirunelveli, Salem etc. How many time? Grrr...

Proof of concept (recent films):
Aaru, Thotti Jeya, Aathi - Nothing but utter violence and of course a hero, heroin, villian, sumos and aruvals based stories. BTW, Aathi was the worst Tamil movie that I have seen of late.

Sanda Khozhi, Sivakasi, Gilli - Can watch once (“At least entertaining”, even thought they may be void of reality).

All this doesn't mean that Tamil cinema is going to the dogs. Many of the talented directors and technicians in the Indian Film industry come from Tamil Nadu. A few recent films that made a differnce and the ones that come to my mind are: Thavamaai Thavam Irundthu, Kanda Nal Mudhal, Arindhum Ariyamalum, Alaghia Theye.

Is this what stunt masters and directors are upto? We need to go places in the area of action cinema and forget the notion of using Sumos and Aruvals in each and every damn film.

Jillunu Oru Kadhal

2006-01-24T17:20:00.000+05:30

Wow! Posters do make a difference, don't they? It is one of the rare artistic Tamil film posters. Summa Jillinu Irruku! (It's simply cool!)

It's time for a change.

2006-01-20T12:36:00.000+05:30

I am back to blogging today, after quite some time. I was swamped with vacation, travel, family problems and work.

Last year this time, it was my last working day at TATA. It was a Thursday and that night, I boarded the train to Bangalore from Chennai. I remember joining Motorola on Monday the 24th Jan 2005. So it is almost a year now and now there is a change in the offing. This time, a change in the campus. Our group is being moved to a new facility near by. Though it does not boast the best facilities that the current one does, I believe that a change is always good and a change is inevitable.

Kathleen Raine's Change
"Change
Said the sun to the moon,
You cannot stay.

Change
Says the moon to the waters,
All is flowing.

Change
Says the fields to the grass,
Seed-time and harvest,
Chaff and grain.

You must change said,
Said the worm to the bud,
Though not to a rose,

Petals fade
That wings may rise
Borne on the wind.

You are changing
said death to the maiden, your wan face
To memory, to beauty.

Are you ready to change?
Says the thought to the heart, to let her pass
All your life long

For the unknown, the unborn
In the alchemy
Of the world's dream?

You will change,
says the stars to the sun,
Says the night to the stars."

I believe...

A change can change a lot of things like the place of work, colleagues, facilities, etc., but it rarely does change the real person in you. It can even change your attitude towards a few aspects of life, but that change cannot bring about a drastic change in one's personality and the bonding one has gained over the period of time.

The change in life’s experience at Chennai - the professional learning experience, the inspired bonding with best friends, new friends gained, cinema, night food, hostel life, cricket and much more are afresh in my mind.

Six management tips from Rahul Dravid

2006-01-20T12:13:00.001+05:30

A forward that exracts management tips from my cricketing hero...

He is strong, understated and very likeable. The calm and reliable Rahul Dravid is the Captain cool, reliable batsman and hero for GenX. He is the perfect CEO of Team India. Rahul may be the boy next door but he's not a chocolate hero. His steely determination and deep foresight is beyond compare in Indian cricket. Top Indian CEOs will benefit if take a leaf out of Rahul’s philosophy.

Dravid plays a sport which is like a religion in India. His every mistake is closely scrutinised and good decisions often go unnoticed but the ‘the Wall’ carries on regardless. His accession to the throne, considered to be the toughest job in world cricket, was perhaps one of the most publicised events of 2005.

But the Karnataka batsman handled the situation as delicately as only he can – not for a single moment did he take his eyes off the ball. In his very first game as captain at Nagpur against Sri Lanka he led from the front ensuring an easy victory for India. Dravid hasn’t looked back since that heady November evening.

Lesson No. 1: A leader is not made in heaven
Rahul was never a born leader. He did not captain his state team, Kumble always wore the captain’s cap for Karnataka and Sourav was the undisputed leader of Team India but it never distracted Dravid. Every captain in fact relied on Dravid to keep one end up and whenever the team was in trouble whether it was Karnataka or India - Dravid was always pressed into service.

Even as captain, nothing has changed, India still relies on him. Dravid always likes leading from the front, the fact that he has already opened the batting for India twice already, in the Delhi Test and in the last one at Lahore speaks for itself!

Some people are born great, others achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them. The Indian captain certainly belongs to the second category.

Dravid has often said the absence of outward aggression does not mean he is not competitive. There is perhaps no other cricketer who is as intense as Rahul Dravid. He allows everyone to develop their own style and yet he can take the hard decisions always putting the team above all else in true Dravideque style.

He has controlled Sourav’s intensity with care and allowed him a degree of freedom without disrupting the balance of Team India. It’s not easy, Ganguly is India’s most successful captain and his first instinct is to lead but Rahul has held his own and stamped his authority ensuring his troops rally around him rather than dwell on the past.

Lesson No. 2: How to handle power
Philip Kotler might believe in the top down approach but Dravid is all about the bottom up approach. He believes in working closely with players whether it is Irfan, Harbhajan or even Sachin Tendulkar. He is always there for his men. In fact, whenever Indian batsmen go through a lean patch whether it is Sachin or Sourav they always have Dravid by their side. Indian off spinner Murali Kartik once admitted Dravid was the only player who had a quiet word with him when he was dropped from the team in the early part of his career and even drove him around the city to cool his nerves.

Dravid has always maintained his balance under pressure and ensured his deeds take precedence over headline grabbing mind games and sledging matches on the field. Heated exchanges help no one, putting yourself in other persons shoes can do wonders and Dravid is the master of that technique. Shoaib Akhtar tested his patience during the Lahore Test by looking him straight in the eyes and exchanging a word or two, the Indian captain simply stared him down.

It is not as if Dravid is soft and can be easily rubbished. The famous incident involving Australia’s Micheal Slater during the first Test at Mumbai in 2001 when the Australian fielder lost his cool when he was adjudged picking the ball off the ground by the TV umpire which led the Australian fielder to walk up to the umpire and later to Dravid is a classic example. Slater, miffed at not being able to convince anyone that he took a ‘clean’ catch used the f-word expletively; Dravid returned the favour and asked him to get back to his position. The incident was quickly forgotten and both teams got on with the game. Slater apologised to both Dravid and the umpire after the later.

Lesson No. 3: Grace under fire
Dravid hasn’t earned the tag of ‘the Wall’ overnight. It has taken him years of toil, hard work and practice added with performance on the field to make it happen. He was sensationally dropped from one-day team during the 90’s but it only made him stronger, he came back as a wicketkeeper/batsman even if it was a makeshift option but he made it count ensuring India had no trouble or complaints from the makeshift option.

He stayed away from mindless bickering in the Indian dressing room during his early days and always ensured the team was never thrown off balance. It is no secret that former coach John Wright got the job as India’s coach because of Dravid who had put in a good word for him during BCCI’s hunt for a foreign coach. The BCCI took his word for it, the Kiwi coach always had a soft corner for the Karnataka batsman and always believed he would make a better captain than Sourav but Dravid backed his captain to the hilt, doing what he does best – scoring centuries and winning matches for India.

During India’s infamous Zimbabwe tour last year which left an inedible mark on Indian cricket with the Sourav-Chappell row coming out in the open, Dravid held firm. Sourav wanted to leave the tour midway and Chappell wanted Dravid to take over but Rahul stood by his captain and believed it would be disastrous for India if the Indian captain left mid-way. Sourav stayed back and Dravid won everyone’s heart in the dressing room.

Lesson No. 4: Sharing the limelight
Dravid’s best knocks have always been overshadowed by a bigger, more flamboyant one by someone else at the other end. VVS Laxman was the star of the Kolkata Test against Australia in 2001 which turned the series around for India even though Dravid stood with Laxman all day to thwart McGrath & co. Everyone remembers Sehwag’s thunderous 195 at Melbourne even though it was Dravid who was responsible for India taking the lead in the Adelaide Test against Australia in the 2003-04 series down under.

If that is not enough Sehwag is known as the Sukltan of Multan even though it was Rahul whose brilliant 270 helped India seal the 2004 Pak series for the first in it’s history but the Indian captain has been unfazed, letting others grab the big stories while he goes about his business without much fuss or hype.

Even in the Lahore Test it was Sehwag who had everyone hooked to their seats, just like Sourav had in the World Cup match against Sri Lanka in England in 1999 when he scored a record breaking 183 even though Rahul had a cracked a ton at the other end with him

Lesson No. 5: You needn't be flashy to succeed
Dravid was overshadowed by Sourav Ganguly for the better part of his career. Both made their Test debuts together at Lord’s in 1996 with Ganguly hitting a memorable century ensuring all the attention was grabbed by him, Dravid fell five short of his ton even though he played a knock which was far beyond his years but it went virtually unnoticed. Then for a long time he missed out on successive tons chocking in the 90’s.

Now in 2006 with 21 Test centuries he is the only contemporary batsman in India who can mount a realistic challenge on Sachin’s record. He learned from every failure, every setback and emerged stronger while Laxman and his ilk have been a flickering star, the tried and tested Rahul Dravid has gone from strength to strength in his unassuming style.

Lesson No. 6: Work is life and the rest is mere details
During the Delhi Test between India and Australia way back in 1996 when Rahul was still a rookie in his first year of international cricket, the young Karnataka player was walking around the stadium with nothing to do waiting for his chance to bat, wearing a smart. white t-shirt there was something unique which was spotted by the television cameraman. The words “Cricket is life rest all are mere details” was boldly written on his back, the cameraman later requested Dravid to give it to him and the Indian captain had no hesitation in handing it to him.

Happy Pongal

2006-01-12T17:34:00.000+05:30

Advance Pongal wishes to all my friends from Tamil Nadu. Going back to my home town after quite some time. It's time for some mummy made yummy food! :)

Know more about Pongal ... the grand festival of South Indain Tamils.

Happy Birthday...

2006-01-09T17:21:00.000+05:30

Happy birthday to my wife!

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
"For everything there is a season,
And a time for every matter under heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
A time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to seek, and a time to lose;
A time to keep, and a time to throw away;
A time to tear, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate,
A time for war, and a time for peace."

And today it's your birthday.
A time to be happy.
A time to look back at what the lord has given you and to thank Him.
A time to realise and to admit to the fact that you are growing older.
A time to think about your accomplishment dues, next year, same time.

A time to be born again and enjoy life. Happy birthday.

Bend it like Carlos!

2006-01-07T12:56:00.000+05:30

Why should "Bend it like..." always end with Beckham? Have a look at this amazing bannan free kick - video.

Check out the below links for more interesting videos...

You got the moves
Amazing goals
Zizu's turn and shoot
Goal keeping blunder
Nike - Video Advertisment
Football, Music and Dance
Girls do know the tricks

The bus to Pakistan.

2006-01-04T15:48:00.000+05:30

I do not see the special buses connecting Kashmir and Pakistan making the headlines too often these days. The attempts made by India and Pakistan to come to a settlement have also dried up.

There are terror threats and political blaming stories from both of them. I guess the forth coming Indo Pak series would help the cause. A chance for the countries on either side of the border to renew their “ties” is in the offing.

More than everything, it is pure cricketing thrill that everyone is expecting out of this series. India wne the test and one-day series held in Pakistan in 2004. The rival teams are locking horns in a similar tie after a year.

This time around Pakistan has a better ODI squad than the Indians. Akhtar is in peak form and all others have been contributing in the recent matches against England. It should be an interesting war on field. Hope that the series is not a one-sided affair. India is definitely going to have a tough tour and it would be great if they could manage to win the series.

It would be a double treat if they win hearts of the people of Pakistan by displaying good sporting skills coupled with sportsmanship which the Aussies seem to be missing.

Remember how the matches went last time around?

TEST SERIES
3. India seal series win
2. Pakistan draw level
1. India make history

ONE-DAY SERIES
5. India take series
4. Dravid sets up India win
3. Hameed sets up Pakistan win
2. Pakistan level series
1. India win Karachi thriller

Who are you betting on this time around?

Aussies ... the lord of the rings.

2006-01-04T13:38:00.000+05:30

I have been a keen follower of cricket and I have always admired the art of Spin bowling.

There has been a lot of talk about who is the best in the business. Is it Shane Warne or Mutiah Muralitharan? According to me both of them are talented and have a unique way of spinning the cricket ball. I see Murali as a silent killer or rather a smiling killer. Warne is a wonder to watch who is seen as a bad boy on and off the field.

Here is more to the bad boy image on the field...

I happened to watch the appealing tactics of the Aussies against the touring South African side, in the second test match. It was disgusting. I would not say it is bad to appeal. It's after all a part of the game. But it was quite evident that the whole Oz team was pressurizing Asad Rauf, the new umpire from Pakistan (Experience: 3 test matches as umpire and former Pakistan player). By the end of the match Asad Rauf had gained a wonderful reputation to himself by staying cool and accurate most of the times. It was disappointing to see Warne, Ponting and Gilchrist behave as kids, after Rauf had turned down an appeal off the bowling of Shane Warne. The argument continued for well over 3-4 minutes. They kept teaching the umpire with cricketing stances and kept shaking their heads for a considerable amount of time. The replay showed it clearly that the umpire had hit the bulls eye in that LBW controversy. I wonder if Aussies would ever grow up and show some respect for the opponents and the umpires.

And guess what would have happened if an Indian was at the receiving end; a huge fine and a possible ban for couple of test matches. Why weren't the Aussies fined? Because they are the lord of the cricketing ring. I sincerely doubt if ICC would ever be mature enough to see everybody as one.

Related News: Warne, Symonds treading fine line

The 50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years

2006-01-02T14:34:00.000+05:30

Happy New Year 2006

2005-12-30T15:23:00.000+05:30

The Bombs are already getting onto the headlines. This time around the terrorists are targeting Bangalore's New Year eve, following the shoot out at IISC, Bangalore. Let us forget all that and expect a peaceful and a happy year ahead.

Wishing you all a very happy new year.

Hip Hop and the Las Vegas Connection!

2005-12-30T12:09:00.000+05:30

Right from Childhood I have been fascinated by Rap music. I would glue my eyes onto MTV RAP numbers then. Of late there has been a lot of Rap and Hip Hop numbers from Tamil and Hindi music directors. Amitab and Abhishek do a lot of Hip Hop songs these days. And our guyz deliver it on par if not better than the western counterparts, added with the desi touches to it.

So what is Hip Hop? It is a mix of Rapping (hey read carefully!), DJing (producing scratchy music), wearing your pants half way through your bums (showing your underwear is optional), dancing those crazy moves and of course "Yo Yo"ing.

Talking about Hip Hops …

I still remember the first live experience I had at Las Vegas. I dont drink and it was the first time I accompanied a couple of buddies to a happening Pub. We waited in line along with the American folks. The entrance was guarded by hefty guys. They would open up the chain and let us in as and when people come out of the pub. When we entered, I could see smoke and hear music. I kept bumping onto someone. Hey don’t think otherwise... it was because of poor visibility.

It was some kind of a weird feeling to see huge guys (like the ones seen on TV) flanked by babes on either side glancing at us and probably sending the message "what are these kids doing?” Huh! Probably those were words from my rather insecure inner self. There were a few others who gave a smile with raised eyebrows - probably saying "Hi!”. As we moved on we hit the dance floor, again flanked by a chain of body guards around the dance floor. The music was on and you guess what. Yes, Hip Hops.

We too were dancing to the tunes with bizarre moves. It was rather easy as you just need to follow the crowd and move along with them. When I was busy with that, my buddy was making other moves. He was slowly catching along with another babe along with the item number that he was following. Rather disappointingly, another dude whirled her away. When I was thinking - "wow! This guy is making great moves", he quickly started inviting another one. I could only think that all those powers were from the bottle of bear that he was holding. This girl was a Chinese. She moved out after some time along with her friends. When I was just telling my buddy that he had chased a girl out of the dance floor, he was surrounded by Chinese Jackie Chans (her boy friends probably). We dint understand what they were saying (as the music was damn loud). But I could see danger brewing as they were all angry. Before things could get nasty, I pulled along my friend and moved out of the dancing arena. Ho! We panicked, but nothing else happened. I thanked God – “Yo! God!!”. By the end of it my friend lost all the hip hop spirit that had climbed onto his head. It did not end there though. Buddies continued to dance with bear bottles in hand. One of them was dancing crazy with all Desi steps along side a huge black American woman. She enjoyed it for sure. We were laughing our lungs out. What was I doing? By then I had said enough is enough to myself and was taking snaps, so that I could share it along with friends back home. Later I managed to slowly drag them out of the crazy place well past mid night.

Back to Hip Hops… however crazy it might seem, they do really fire up the Josh-engine in you. These days I do dance to the Hip Hops rather instantaneously; and of course in indoors and with all the curtains down. Hip hop ... Yo Yo!!

Here are my favorite Hip Hop artists/groups:
50 Cents, The black eyed peas, Diddy or Puff Daddy, Eminem, Outkast, Snoop Dogg

The Massacre of an Ambassador?

2005-12-29T15:33:00.000+05:30

One of my good buddies wanted me to re-model an Ambassador car. He was interested in re-modeling his 1965 Amby, which he had bought recently.

Having not ventured into anything like this before, I took up the challenge. Would not be too proud of the output, but it’s just the beginning. Did it sound like "another car designer in the making?". If so, forgive me. I no nothing about cars!

Anyways my friend is taking it seriously. I know that it would not be that easy, as it would require some technical effort as well to aid the design ideas. Both of us are new to this and are just crazy about producing a .... Crazy idea? :)

Look at the massacre design ideas below...

The idea behind the first design was to blend bizzare vintage curves to the body inorder to make the 1965 Hindustan Motor's Ambassador, a unique one.

The second one depicts the vintage style via the BIG WHITE MUSH quite similar to the ones sported by the good old maharajas of India.

History behind "Paid Leave".

2005-12-27T13:39:00.000+05:30

Ever had a look at September 1752 calendar? Huh!

As you see in the above snapshot, eleven days went missing. What is the story behind it?

That was the time England shifted from Roman Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar, and the king of England ordered those 11 days to be wiped off the face of the month of September of 1752. The workers worked for 11 days less but got paid for the entire 30 days.

And that is how "Paid Leave" was born.

The New Year Will Be A Second Late!

2005-12-23T11:17:00.000+05:30

AS NEW Year revellers count down to the last second of 2005 this December 31, time will, literally, stand still for a moment.

But only for a second, as standard clocks around the world will add an extra second to the year, to make up the difference between solar time and “real” or “absolute” time. For the first time in seven years, that is, since 1998, a “leap second” will be added to time standards, on instructions from the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERRSS) located in the United States.

Indian Standard Time (IST) will also add this time-difference. IST is monitored and controlled by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in Delhi, which maintains SI units in India, and also calibrates the National Standards of Weights and Measures. “Through an act of Parliament, we have been designated the official timekeepers of India. And it is our responsibility to see that we keep time properly,” says Mr P Banerjee, head of the time and frequency division at NPL.

This time-addition, however, takes place even as scientists, astronomers and technologists debate on the need for “leap seconds” at all. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) at Geneva recently postponed its decision on a proposal to ban leap seconds from December 2007, in view of continuing discussions on the subject. “The debate was postponed because people are confused,” says Mr Banerjee.

There are two time systems which are accepted world-wide: International Atomic Time, based on relatively stable, invariant atomic clocks, and Universal Time, derived from the rotation of the earth. The difference between the two systems should not exceed 0.9 seconds. If so, it is decided to give a jump in the opposite direction, and this jump is colloquially termed “leap second”. “The decision to introduce positive or negative leap seconds was made in 1971, and the first was added the following year. Since then, we have added 22 such seconds to our clocks. And this will be the 23rd time in the history of time,” he says. “NPL has been following the system for years. If the ITU chooses to continue with it, it is fine. If it chooses to ban it, there is still no problem.”

“One can perhaps consider it when the difference reaches that of one hour. Which means 3600 seconds.

And taking an average addition of plus or minus 1 second per year, it means approximately 3600 years, which is equivalent to several human lifetimes,” the scientist says. Astronomers and navigators who want their clocks to match the natural day-night rhythm of earth’s rotation tend to prefer the leap second, because it helps them keep track of where astronomical objects are in the sky. Whereas, technologists, who depend on the unvarying, uniform frequency of the atomic clock, are not entirely in favour of the leap second.

For it can create problems with modern communication systems and other electronic operations which rely on synchronicity. “In the olden days, time as we knew it was determined by the rotation of the earth. Based on calculations, and the periodic difference from sunrise-to-sunrise, people arrived at the duration of a second,” he says. “Now, we have moved far beyond the pendulum and the quartz-clock. The standard of measuring time is now the atomic clock.”

“It is very stable since it is based on atomic phenomena, so much so that it led to the discovery of the variation in earth’s rotation, which effectively meant variations in the length of day. It was then discovered that we needed to keep the atomic clock in time with the earth clock. Which is how scientists arrived at the need of the leap second,” he says. - PTI

Extract from: The Economic Times, New Delhi 22 DECEMBER

Be insured against ALIENS!

2005-12-16T15:43:00.000+05:30

Do you know people insure themseleves against Aliens? You think this is a joke. Read on...

Today I read in the TIMES magazine that over 4,000 people on both sides of the Atlantic have taken out protection against kidnap by aliens. A UK based insurance company, Goodfellow Rebecca Ingrams Pearson (GRIP) provided this service to those frightened by the little green men throughout the 1990s. Back then, the cost of protecting yourself against UFOs was a mere £100 a year. Any individuals who could prove they’d been kidnapped by folk from another planet were entitled to claim for a bumper £100,000.

These bizarre policies made up over 10% of the company’s profits – and they didn’t stop with aliens. They also insure virgins against immaculate conception, prostitutes against loss of earnings and many more. It may sound bizarre, but it is true.

Unfortunately, GRIP insurers no longer provide protection against alien encounters, but America’s UFO Abduction Insurance Company will still insure those individuals scared of being spirited to a galaxy far, far away.

So its time to get insured. Against becoming a Vampire, being eaten by an alien,
against becoming the invisible man and many more. Anyhow, the Indian version must be different. May be we Indians must be insured against THEIVA KUTHANGALS ("sins towards Gods") and other God borne transition effects.

ENV ... Envy the future.

2005-12-16T15:26:00.000+05:30

Intelligent Energy, a British hydrogen energy technology developer have showcased their new ENV (Emissions neutral vehicle) motorcycle recently. The super-futuristic looking bike runs on compressed hydrogen gas, run through a fuel cell to power its 6kW electric drive motor. People who have test driven it seem to be saying that artificial sound needs to be added to the bike as a safety measure to the pedestrians. Of course, the indian versions would have a BIG HONKING horn facility. Otherwise the company would be risking its Sales value.

The current prototype zips from zero to its top speed of 80.465 KMPH in just 12.1 sec. A tank can serve a distance of upto 160.93 KMS on a single tank. The hydrogen fuel tank is a catridge which can be removed and replaced, just like the catridge in a printer.

And when can we get to ride them? When the company produces them. These models are prototypes only showcasing the company's core technological strength. For more info, visit http://www.envbike.com/.

Narain - next to numero uno in test drive for Williams

2005-12-16T11:21:00.000+05:30

Our coimbatore lad has done a great job in testing for Williams. Narain Karthikeyan, who made his debut with the Jordan team last year, joined the Cosworth-powered team on 14 Dec 2005, for a three-day test drive session at Jerez (the Spanish Circuit).

Sir Frank Williams did not comment on his first test drive which itself was an excellent performance. And yesterday, our lad has done an even more better performance by coming second after Frenchman Franch Montangny. Mark Webber who is also testing in a Williams, clocked almost a second slower than Narian, taking sixth position. Columbia's Montoya, who was in his Mclaren finsihed eigth.

Way to go Narain! We expect you to reach futher speeds, get the testing role for Williams and in due course, take our Indian flag to the podium.

Firefox 1.5 ... Irresistable.

2005-12-15T14:56:00.000+05:30

Have you ever tried out the new browser from Mozilla?

Though I have looked at Firefox browsers on my friends PC, I was not really convinced. But itz a totally different feeling after having downloaded and used it. Itz awesome.

So whatz the secret? All but simple features bundled into a cool product. Herez a brief of what struck me the most.

• You can have a tabbed view. You need not have the problems of having different IE windows open for each site. Just swap tabbed pages and move on. So I come to the office and open the browser only once a day. For all others, you right click on the tabbed pane and say "New Tab". Ctrl + tab - enables you to move across web pages (between tabbed panes).

• The find toolbar. A super-cool find toolbar pops at the bottom of a web-page (or rather a web-tabbed-page), where in you could type the search criteria. It gets immediately marked in the page. To move back and forth you need to click on Find Next and Find Previous buttons. You could also highlight them all at a time.

• Therez more. An information bar (similar to IE6) pops up whenever a page is blocked or during a restricted download. It keeps you well informed of what is happening.

• Therez a web features option pane where you can have a wish list of what patches that can and cannot be automatically downloaded.

• You also have a separate bookmark manager tool.

I would recommend you to try it once. You will then use it forever.